Abdullah Gharman and Yehya Al-Fifi Okaz/Saudi Gazette ABHA — The number of domestic violence cases has reportedly been on the increase recently. Every now and then newspapers report cases where children have been mistreated at the hands of none other than their parents. A man said his nephews have suffered a lot because their abusive father got angry after their mother filed for divorce. The father is hooked on drugs and still abuses his children who live with him. A woman said she had to bear all forms of torture at the hands of her husband just for the sake of her children. She stayed silent for quite some time. However, when things got worse, she filed for divorce. When the father started abusing their children, the woman was compelled to report him to the security authorities. A child was tortured by his father and stepmother so much so that he was suffering from urine retention and had to be operated on. The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has handled many of these painful and heartrending stories. One of them involved an expatriate woman who said her husband used to abuse their son physically and sexually. She saw this happening to her son but could not talk for fear that her husband would seek revenge against her and her son. But one day she plucked up courage and reported him to the authorities. According to a local study, 21 percent of children suffer from constant abusive treatment while 45 percent suffer from some form of abuse at least once every day. Psychological or mental abuse was the most prevalent type of abuse at 33.6 percent, followed by physical abuse (25.3 percent) and neglect (23.9 percent). Forms of psychological abuse include threatening to beat up children, using abusive language with them, leaving them alone at home and punishing them by not giving them daily allowances. Forms of physical abuse include beating up children, slapping them on their faces, throwing stuff at them, using dangerous tools to beat them and smoking cigarettes in the same room with them. Forms of neglect include carelessness on the part of parents regarding what happens to their children in school, for example. The same statistical study showed elementary students accounted for the highest percentage of psychological abuse at 36.4 percent followed by intermediate students at 30 percent. The highest percentage of physical abuse has been registered against high school students at 28.4 percent followed by intermediate students at 25.3 percent. This means that students between the ages of 15 to 16 are more susceptible to physical abuse than other students. Seventy percent of orphans suffer from psychological abuse while 58 percent who come from broken families (i.e. divorced parents) suffer from physical abuse. Another 23.6 percent of children who has lost a parent to death suffer from physical abuse while 23.6 percent of motherless children suffer from this form of abuse. The study noted that children whose mothers have a college degree suffer more from physical abuse because they are often left in the care of housemaids or relatives. Saeed Al-Naqeer, Asir Health Affairs spokesman, said most domestic violence cases admitted in Asir hospitals were victims of violence and torture. Most of them come from broken families, he said. A number of schoolteachers said teachers no longer use corporal punishment against students. They said the Ministry of Education does not let such practices go unpunished and cited some examples where teachers were expelled from schools for using force to discipline students. Ayed Asiri, student counselor at Asir's department of education, said most parents who abuse their children have themselves been victims of abuse when they were very young. He added that parents who take drugs or alcohol are more likely to abuse their children physically and psychologically. Muhammad Al-Amri, psychologist, called on concerned authorities to conduct more studies about domestic violence cases. He said many children fall victim to domestic violence without even being aware of it. A source in the Ministry of Education revealed a project where the ministry will conduct a study to get more statistics about students who have been victims of violence. A number of religious scholars attributed the increase in domestic violence cases to parents who do not have strong religious values and have not followed the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
