http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article512297.ece Haia highlights why women run away from homes By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR | ARAB NEWS
Published: Oct 5, 2011 23:17 Updated: Oct 5, 2011 23:17 JEDDAH: The number of Saudi women running away from their homes is increasing, according to studies by the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia). The study revealed that in the last eight years there have been 529 cases of runaway Saudi women across the Kingdom. Riyadh had the highest number of runaway women, 342 cases in total, while Makkah province was a distant second with 98 cases. The study, which revealed the root causes of women running away from home, was aimed at raising public awareness on the issue and encouraging remedial action. Bassam bin Suleiman Al-Youssef, director of the Center for Research and Studies, said the study highlights the importance of dealing with such sensitive issues in Saudi society. “Women running away from home pose security, health and social threats to society. This problem is a global phenomenon, but in Saudi Arabia we do not want to talk about it because of the nature of our closed society,” he added. Dr. Khalid Bahaziq, a psychologist who works for the International Muslim Organization for Women and Family (IMOWF) in Jeddah, said the number of runaway Saudi women could be higher than the figures the Haia has provided. Saudi families are only providing their daughters with essential needs such as food, clothes and a roof over their heads, not knowing that young girls need more than that, according to Bahaziq. “Young women need tender love and care from their parents. They need emotional attention and most of those runaway girls lack this in their home,” he said. “Another major problem is the physical, emotional and verbal abuse that some of those women witness or experience at home,” he added. “When authorities return these women to their homes, they escape again because their problems are not solved. I believe that if you want to solve a problem, you should find its source and causes and fix them first,” said Bahaziq. Mona Siraj, managing editor at Sayidaty magazine, said traditional media have a responsibility to properly investigate each case and report all sides of the story, as opposed to social media, which often take such stories at face value. “From my experience in the media I found that some publications just support those runaway women without looking into the problem or investigating the source. On the other hand, we have found out a number of times that these women are not telling us the truth. They just want to run away for frivolous reasons, such as wanting a certain luxury that her family cannot provide,” she said. Sayidaty magazine has been investigating several runaway cases in the Kingdom only to find out that a huge number of them were based on deception, said Siraj. “We found out when studying a number of cases that most of these runaway women do not suffer from any problems back home, but were driven by temptation. Some of them were romantically involved while others were swayed by materialistic things,” she said [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
