JEDDAH — An unidentified woman who carried both Saudi and Egyptian nationalities conned social security and Awaser, the charity society that takes care of stranded Saudi families abroad, of huge amounts of money over the past six years, Makkah daily reported on Wednesday. The story of the woman unraveled when her ex-husband stopped paying her monthly alimony. "I stopped paying her alimony to exert pressure on my two daughters and son to come back from Egypt and live with me in Saudi Arabia," said the ex-husband, who was identified only by his initials K.A.R. He said when he stopped paying the alimony, his ex-wife filed a case against him at the Saudi Consulate in Alexandria. He said he contacted the consulate only to discover that she was being paid SR1,500 from Awaser every month for the past six years. "She had collected more than SR108,000 from Awaser alone," he added. The ex-husband said his divorcee used her Saudi nationality to get a monthly assistance of SR2,400 from social security in addition to his monthly alimony of SR2,800, which was decided against him by an Egyptian court. "In six years, my ex-wife had collected more than SR300,000 from me, Awaser and the social security," he said. He said his ex-wife had let go of the Saudi nationality she got after marrying him, but only after using it to obtain social security assistance. He said his marriage to her lasted for 10 years. "My youngest son from her is now 19 years old," he added. The man said his ex-wife exploited her Saudi nationality to obtain social security assistance and used her Egyptian nationality to get money from Awaser, which assists foreign women whose Saudi husbands have deserted them and left them stranded in their homes. He said his ex-wife was able to obtain a deed to prove that her son was still a dependent though he had passed 18 and was therefore not entitled to social security assistance. He added that he would sue his ex-wife at a Saudi court to stop paying her social security assistance and the Awaser monthly financial aid because he is still alive and his son is above 18. Sameer Ba-Issa, an Awaser member, said the woman exploited the organization to obtain financial assistance of which, she is not entitled to. He asked the organization to sue the woman so as to reimburse all the money paid to her in the past six years. He asked Awaser to make thorough investigations before deciding to pay money to stranded foreign wives of Saudi men and also to appoint lawyers to file lawsuits against women who exploit the organization.
