Di Saudi Arabia, pasangan suami istri Mansour dan Fatima hidup berbahagia dengan kedua anak mereka sampai akhirnya Pengadilan memutuskan menceraikan mereka. Pasalnya? Pihak keluarga Fatima menuntut mereka bercerai karena mereka beralasan suku mereka lebih terhormat daripada keluarga Mansour. Dalam Fikih Nikah, dikenal istilah "sekufu" sebagai salah satu syarat nikah. Fatima menolak dikembalikan ke keluarga asalnya dan memilih mendekam di dalam penjara sudah lebih dari 9 bulan bersama anak laki-lakinya yang berumur 1 tahun. Dia dan suaminya mengkhawatirkan keluarga Fatima akan memaksanya menikah dengan laki-laki lain. Sementara itu, Mansour bersama putrinya yang berusia 2 tahunan, hidup bersembunyi dicekam ketakutan.
Hakim memutuskan mengabulkan tuntutan keluarga Fatima dengan dalih untuk melindungi pihak istri-istri dari keluarga yang lebih bangsawan dan menghindarkan kerusakan yang lebih besar. Padahal Mansour dan Fatima dinikahkan baik-baik oleh ayah Fatima tadinya. Setelah ayahnya wafat, saudara tiri Fatima mengambil alih kepemimpinan keluarga dan menggugat pasangan malang ini ke pengadilan. Herannya dalam keputusannya, Hakim sama sekali tidak mengutip ayat al-Quran, melainkan hanya fatwa dari dua orang ulama. Dukungan terhadap Mansour-Fatima mengalir di Saudi, kasus ini diajukan banding ke pengadilan yang lebih tinggi. Akankah berhasil? Ataukah sekali lagi kita dipaksa menonton drama dari abad kegelapan? Hari ini alasannya perbedaan suku, di kemudian hari bisa juga perbedaan standar hidup, latar belakang pendidikan, atau bahkan sekedar cara salat dan wudu. Ada pula yang menunjukkan dukungan dengan membuat petisi online di http://www.petitiononline.com/FATMAH/petition.html salam, DWS -- Genderpedia.Org Proyek Ensiklopedia Gender Online http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24761&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=116 Sunday, 04 February 2007 Divorced Couple's Lawyer to Appeal to Royal Court 37-year-old Mansour has aged fast after running from court to court to get back his wife, who was divorced from him against her will. The only hope he has is his 2-year-and 9-month-old daughter Noha - The Saudi Gazette photo by Suzan Zawawi.By Suzan Zawawi The Saudi Gazette AL-KHOBAR THE lawyer representing Mansour Al-Timani and Fatima – the couple who were divorced against their wish on the grounds that they were not equal in ancestry line – has appealed to the Royal Court to forward the case to High Court. "The High Court is the only legal establishment that can overrule the appeals court if it finds the ruling contrary to the Shariah," said Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, the couple's lawyer. Only cases forwarded by the Royal Court are looked into by the High Court. The couple was divorced in absentia by Justice Ibrahim Al-Farraj in the northern city of Al-Jouf after Fatima's brothers began legal action in 2005, claiming Mansour, Fatima's husband, was not of sufficiently prestigious tribal stock to marry their half sister. Al-Lahem took the case to the appeals court and last Sunday the appeals court endorsed the lower court verdict. Fatima and Mansour do not recognize the court's verdict and still consider themselves married. Fatima has been protesting against the verdict by remaining in Dammam prison and refusing to go back to her blood family. Al-Lahem had appealed to the Ministry of Social Affairs last Monday to look into Fatima's case, but he has not yet received any reply. "I want the ministry to take Fatima out of prison and place her in one of their social affairs women's shelter," said Al-Lahem. He also contacted the National Society for Human Rights to help in moving Fatima out of the prison to a women's shelter. He, however, has been unable to contact his client in Dammam prison to discuss the case. Fatima's husband told The Saudi Gazette that he would prefer his wife to either stay in prison or go to a women's shelter but not to her blood family. "This is for her own safety," said Mansour. He is also worried that his in-laws would forcibly marry off his wife to another man. "They divorced us by force so I wouldn't be surprised if they marry her off by force too," he said. Mansour is expecting his in-laws to continue with the immoral case against him. "The original case is of living with Fatima in the same house after we were divorced in absentia," he said. The couple's nightmare started after Fatima's father, who married of his daughter willingly to Mansour became terminally ill. Her half-brothers obtained power of attorney from their father and started legal action against their sister and her husband. The father died during the trial. Despite the fact that both Fatimah and Mansour were happily married and informed the lower court that they did not want a divorce, the judge forcibly divorced the couple. http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24759&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=116 Dead Man Walking Sunday, 04 February 2007 By Suzan Zawawi The Saudi Gazette AL-KHOBAR THE eyes were blank, the face emotionless. Mansour, 37, appeared to have aged fast. Premature sprinkle of gray his beard was obvious so were the wrinkles on his forehead and around his eyes. His eyes didn't express pain or loss, but something beyond that. I wondered how he could be taking care of himself and his 2-year-and-9-month-old daughter Noha in this state of depression. But Noha is the only hope Mansour has. She is the one keeping him from going insane. Only when Mansour looks at his daughter does a spark of life appear in his eyes. Mansour is currently living in hiding, worrying that his in-laws would snatch his daughter also. "She is the only thing I am left with, and I will not let them take her," Mansour told The Saudi Gazette. "No one knows were I live," he said. Mansour agreed to meet The Saudi Gazette on Al-Khobar Cornish, arriving in a taxi for the interview. No one could have missed the father and daughter who seemed to be walking with a load of worries. The fact that his wife has been snatched away from him has still not sank in. Mansour feels it is all fiction. Even when he was talking to me, I didn't feel his presence. He was living in his own world, a world full of misery, despair and injustice. The meeting was short but emotionally draining. I looked back, standing in the rain and holding his daughter the father was holding on to his last shred of hope. My heart ached. http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24830&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=116 Group Interest Prevails over Individual Tragedy Monday, 05 February 2007 By Suzan Zawawi The Saudi Gazette RIYADH THE judge who ruled in favor of Fatima and Mansour Al-Timani's forced divorce issued the ruling because their marriage threatened the rest of the family. The lower court's verdict to legally separate the couple was read aloud by their lawyer Abdulrahman Al-Lahem on TV during an interview on Ein ART channel Saturday night. "The divorce of one couple is better than the divorce of many couples," Al-Lahem said quoting the verdict issued by the judge in Al-Jouf. "The marriage of Fatima and Mansour threatens the stability of the rest of the family, especially the female members," Al-Lahem quoted the verdict. "In this case the interest of a group prevails over the interest of the couple." Fatima and Mansour's marriage resulted in the separation of Fatima's half sister from her husband and a decline in marriage proposals to her other sisters and female cousins because Mansour came from a lower tribal background. The judge, therefore, saw it in the interest of Fatima's female family members to divorce the couple, despite their protests. The problem with the appeals court verdict is that all similar cases will have to end with the same outcome, the lawyer said. "Even if the judge doesn't want to rule likewise, he will have to because of the appeals court decision," Lahem said during the TV interview. Nineteen similar cases are pending at the appeals court. Lahem himself has received two similar cases less than a week after the court's ruling. One such case is that of Rania Bo-Ainain and Saud Al-Khaldi in Al-Khobar. Bo-Ainain's father has demanded the court to legally separate his daughter from her husband. Bo-Ainain is expecting to deliver her baby in a couple of weeks' time. "The danger here is male members of a woman's family can seek the divorce," Lahem said. "Today it is about ancestry, tomorrow they can use the same claim because of a difference in educational level, standard of living, and so on," he said. The lawyer said the verdict not only hurts the couples involved, it also threatens the stability of the nation. He added the ruling clearly segregates Saudis based on their ancestry line, which threatens the unity of the country. "The verdict contradicts all human rights charters the Kingdom has signed and contradicts Saudi law," Lahem said. The judge's verdict, which should be based on Shariah (Islamic law), did not have one Qur'anic ayah to support his verdict. "The judge referred to a couple of scholars and what they said, but did not use one Qur'anic saying to base his ruling." Lahem said. This fact gives Lahem hope that if and when the case is presented to the high court through the Royal Court, the verdict will be dismissed. Lahem submitted a request to the Royal Court on Saturday to look into the case and refer it to the high court. While the case against the couple was entirely based on the superiority of Fatima's tribe over Mansour's ancestry line, the judge was presented with evidence to prove Mansour was in fact Fatima's equal in tribal status. Fatima has spent nine months in a Dammam Prison. Prison officials tried to take her back to her family, but she refused to go back to the family who divorced her from her husband. She has been staying in Dammam prison with her one-year-old boy in protest. Lahem has still not been able to contact his client in Dammam prison. Since the appeal court's ruling last Sunday, Mansour has been denied a visit to his son. ======================= Milis Wanita Muslimah Membangun citra wanita muslimah dalam diri, keluarga, maupun masyarakat. Situs Web: http://www.wanita-muslimah.com ARSIP DISKUSI : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/messages Kirim Posting mailto:wanita-muslimah@yahoogroups.com Berhenti mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Milis Keluarga Sejahtera mailto:keluarga-sejahtera@yahoogroups.com Milis Anak Muda Islam mailto:majelismuda@yahoogroups.com This mailing list has a special spell casted to reject any attachment .... Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/join (Yahoo! 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