Five young women are refusing to obey an order from the Civil Status Department in the Eastern Province to return to the house of their father because they claim he and their stepmother have abused them physically and psychologically. The women, all university students, have lodged a complaint with the Administrative Court in Dammam to suspend the order issued by the Civil Status Department. Their father is a senior official of a branch of the Ministry of Endowment, Dawa and Guidance. They left his house in Asir three years ago and have lodged a complaint of abuse against him in the Asir court. The case is still pending. The five women, Asma, Zuhoor, Athir, Ayman, and Razan have reportedly claimed that the abuse includes a refusal to provide them with food and water during the time they stayed with him. They said their ordeal started five years ago when their mother filed a Khula divorce from their father. This divorce is where the woman pays the man compensation. The father accepted the divorce on condition that she relinquished custody of their daughters and that she move from Asir to the Eastern Province. They claimed that the period they lived with him was one of the most miserable times of their life. They then escaped and moved to live with their mother in the Eastern Province. To ensure that they would never be forced to live with him again, they asked the court to grant their grandmother custody over them. They also asked for their guardianship to be transferred from their father to a judge in case they want to get married. Asma, 22, who is studying at a health college in the Eastern Province, claimed that she and her sisters suffer from psychiatric problems because of the alleged beatings. They claimed that their father is “schizophrenic to some degree”. They said that he “behaves as an angel” in public but when they would return home he would “torture” them and beat them until they “lose consciousness”. Asma claimed that her father had also refused to allow her sisters to get married because of his greed for their incomes. He said that he would only allow them to get married if they gave up their financial rights, they claimed. Asma that said she and her sisters were terrified when the Civil Status Department in the Eastern Province threatened that it would suspend their civil records and send women jailers to their colleges to pull them out of their lectures in front of their classmates, if they continue to refuse to live with their father. She said these threats had affected them academically and psychologically. They have lodged a complaint with the Administrative Court in Dammam to suspend the order issued by the Civil Status Department in Asir. Asma has produced medical reports from the Amal Mental Health Complex showing that she suffers from psychiatric problems because of this situation. It also showed that Zuhoor suffers from acute psychiatric symptoms and her sister Ayman had several injuries, including severe damage to her nose because of the alleged beatings. The reports of the psychiatric committee showed that Asma and Zuhoor were suffering from depression, social phobia and were suicidal. The reports stated that this was caused by their father's alleged abuse and the alleged repeated sexual harassment by their half brother who drank alcohol. In response, their father denied abusing them. He said that he loved them and accused his former brothers-in-law of waging a campaign in the media against him. He said they wanted to ruin his reputation. He also claimed that he was not abusing them but rather that his ex-wife's brothers are responsible. He claimed that the problems with his daughters started when he divorced their mother and was granted custody. He said he had divorced her once in court so the Khula was linked to her giving up the right of custody and alimony. This was mentioned in the divorce certificate, he said. He claimed that his daughters remained with him for two years during which they obtained excellent grades in the final secondary examination. He also claimed that he had certificates showing that they were mentally stable. He said that they had escaped after their mother had asked him to allow them to stay with her for a one week holiday in the Eastern Province. He said he was taken by surprise when she refused to send them back. He also accused her of forging medical reports showing that they had been physically abused.
