Having fled an abusive husband, a mother and her eight children are now living on the streets of Makkah in a makeshift dwelling. The mother, who was the victim of a forced marriage, said that she was married off to her cousin after her older sister refused to marry the man. “I was a trade off when my sister refused my cousin,” Umm Abdullah said. Her uncle was so angry when her sister refused his son, that her father had then forced her into the marriage, said Umm Abdullah. Her honeymoon with the man, who is 20 years older than her, was a living hell, she said. “He beat me on the first day of our marriage. No one came to rescue me from this man's violence, not even my father,” she said. Umm Abdullah had to continue her forced marriage in the midst of silence from a society that still place men in the dominant position in relationships. “There was nothing to do but to produce eight children,” she said. Throughout her life with him, the husband regularly assaulted her: beating with a whip, burning and strangling her. “When my father passed away, I left the protection house to receive condolences, and ever since then I felt we did not belong to that protection house,” she said. “We needed a life of our own.” Umm Abdullah has approached many charity organizations in Makkah to help her live a better life, but she has failed to find one that would make life easier for her and her eight children. Mahasin Shouab, a social worker, said that she is trying to find a solution for Umm Abdullah's problem. Her case file was transferred from the Family Protection House to the Ministry of Health to help her overcome the psychological effects of domestic violence. “But before they are treated, the family needs to settle before the case gets worse,” Shouab said. “We have contacted many charity organizations to help Umm Abdullah and her children, but we are still waiting,” she added.
