Saudi Arabia: Saudi rights body saves woman from husband

Wafa will stay at the shelter until the divorce procedures against her husband, to be held in the Jeddah court next Wednesday, are finished. She sought the help of the Commission eight months ago after her husband, who is also her cousin, assaulted her physically with the help of his brother's wife. They tied her hands and feet with iron chains and locked her in a room for more than a week. Wafa managed to escape through an air-conditioning opening and sought the help of the police, who referred her to the Human Rights Commission.

Wafa told Arabic daily Al Watan that differences cropped up between them three years ago, when her husband started to depend on her income, which she made by doing tailoring work while he was unemployed, but she did not think of asking for protection from her husband until he and his sister-in-law assaulted her. Al Jawhara Al Ankari, a member of the Commission, confirmed that Wafa had reached the stage of asking for separation from her husband because of pain she was being subjected to. She added that many women face such difficulties.

Al Ankari demanded that the Commission review the procedures implemented in cases of violence against women and warned that this type of violence may turn into a phenomenon. Currently 30 per cent of the cases that reach the Human Rights Commission are connected with family violence.