YANBU — A Saudi divorcee from Yanbu who is involved in a bitter dispute with her ex-husband over the paternity of her son on Thursday refuted claims by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) that it was giving her support. The society's office in Madinah said on Wednesday that they were following up the case. "The NSHR did not make any move to convince the concerned authorities to force my ex-husband to recognize his son," she said. Um Muhammad said she delivered a baby boy about six months ago and her ex-husband was the father. The boy was born with a heart deformity and has been confined to the general hospital in Yanbu. The hospital refused to issue him with the official documents required for issuing a birth certificate as long as her ex-husband refused to admit that the child was his. Um Muhammad has filed complaints against her ex at the general court in Yanbu and the Madinah governorate. "The baby is his and I am willing to run a DNA test on the boy to prove that," she said. She said her ex physically and verbally abused her and forced her to take herbal medicines to make her miscarry. Sharaf Al-Qarrafi, supervisor of the NSHR's office in Madinah, had said that they started following up the case from the day they received the mother's complaint on Feb. 9. "We remained in constant contact since then with the concerned authorities until the case took its legal course and was handed over to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP)," he said. Um Mohammed, who married the man before she was 20, said she became pregnant three months into the marriage. Her husband divorced her, accused her of adultery and refused to accept the baby as his.
