Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia: Judiciary Council overturns forced-divorce decision

Over four years after a judge in Jouf annulled the marriage of Fatima and Mansour at the behest of Fatima’s half brothers, the Supreme Judiciary Council in Riyadh on Saturday overruled the decision and ordered that the couple be reunited in matrimony. “The divorce ruling is void, therefore the return of the couple together is inevitable now and does not require (another) marriage ceremony,” Ahmad Al-Sudairi, who has been providing the couple pro bono representation, told Arab News. Fatima was pregnant with the couple’s second child when on June 20, 2005 a judge ruled in favor of Fatima’s half brothers and divorced her from Mansour Al-Timani in absentia.

Saudi Arabia: Free Nazia Quazi

In most countries, a woman in her mid-20s is legally an adult. And in most countries, foreigners are free to leave when they like. In its flagrant rejection of these two principles, Saudi Arabia is unique, and that is a big problem for 24-year-old Nazia Quazi.

"الرياض" تلتقي "أطراف الزواج" وتنقل وجهات نظر أخرى للقضية

عنيزة، تحقيق–عبدالرحمن البقمي، بدر العتيبي. فصول مثيرة وأحداث جديدة خرجت على السطح لتكشف للقارئ الكثير من الغموض حول "طفلة بريدة" البالغة من العمر 12 عاماً؛ والتي زوجها والدها برجل ثمانيني. وفي هذا التحقيق نستكمل القضية مع جميع الأطراف (الزوج، ووالد الطفلة، ومأذون الأنكحة، والوكيل الشرعي عن الأم، الطفلة)، وذلك بعد أن التقينا سابقاً مع والدة الطفلة وتحدثت في حوار مطول عن معاناتها وطفلتها من هذا الزواج غير المتكافئ عمرياً.

Saudi Arabia: New Public Defender program

Saudi Arabia's appointed Shura Council has approved establishing a public defender program, a step that will strengthen the criminal justice system, Human Rights Watch said today. The program approved by the council on January 11, 2010 will appoint a lawyer at the state's expense to any criminal defendant who cannot afford one.

Arab world: Segregate the sexes? Fine, until the men run out of coffee

I was sitting in a majlis with a group of women when our chat on world affairs was interrupted by an urgent knock on the door; a knock that opened more than just a passage into the rest of the house. “We ran out of coffee!” I heard a male voice in distress telling the hostess as she opened the door just a tiny crack to see who it was. It was her husband, who was hosting a similar majlis in another corner of the house, with the husbands of the women here. The hostess went out to help him, leaving the door wide open to a room full of annoyed women. Several of them ran to the door to close it, because “there are men in the house”.

السعودية: جلد خميسة محمد سوادي مايزال ينتظر التنفيذ

قال مصدر سعودي لصحيفة جلف نيوز إن الإماراتية إن الحكم الصادر بحق امرأة مسنة بجلدها 40 جلدة وسجنها لاربعة اشهر لم ينفذ بعد وماتزال المرأة البالغة من العمر 75 عاماً والتي وجدت بصحبة رجلين دون ان تربطهما علاقة قرابة بهابحسب الحكم الصادر في حقها، ماتزال تقيم في منزلها في مدينة حائل السعودية.والمرأة المسنة سورية الجنسية وتدعى خميسة محمد سوادي كانت بمعية رجلين سعوديين هما فهد (24 عاماً) وهديان وجدوا مذنبيين في مارس 2009 بارتكاب خلوة فيما تقول خمسية ان فهد هو ابنها بالرضاعة،

UPDATE: Saudi Arabia: Sentence on 75-year-old woman not yet carried out

The Hail Emirate has received official orders to implement the recent sentence handed down against the defendants in the case of Khamisa Sawadi, issued by members of the Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice in the City of Shamli (170 kilometers south of Hail), which was known in the media as 'The case of the elderly woman of Shamli'. Saudi sources have confirmed to Emirati newspaper, Gulf News, that the woman is still in her house and the sentence has not been carried out yet.

Arab world: Next GCC secretary general should be a woman, activist says

Naming a woman as the next secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will solve the standoff between Qatar and the other GCC states over the name of the next official for the top post, a Saudi activist and columnist has said. “Since there seems to be a crisis that is likely to prolong over the name of the top official, the possible solution I see is to choose a female secretary-general with a high academic and diplomatic profile. I do not think that selecting a qualified woman will cause opposition since there are many women who have recently held high political positions,” Hatoon Al Fassi, an expert on women’s rights and a columnist with a Saudi newspaper, wrote.

العالم العربي: حقوق الإنسان واحة الإفلات من المحاسبة والعقاب... 2009

حت عنوان "واحة الإفلات من المحاسبة والعقاب"، يصدر مركز القاهرة لدراسات لحقوق الإنسان اليوم تقريره السنوي الثاني حول حقوق الإنسان في العالم العربي خلال عام 2009. ويأسف مركز القاهرة لدراسات لحقوق الإنسان لأن يعلن للرأي العام، أن حالة حقوق الإنسان في هذه المنطقة، تتجه إلى المزيد من التدهور، حتى بالمقارنة مع الوضع المتدهور عام 2008. يستعرض التقرير أبرز التطورات ذات الصلة في 12 بلد عربي، هي مصر وتونس والجزائر والمغرب والسودان ولبنان وسوريا وفلسطين والعراق والسعودية والبحرين واليمن.

Arab World: Report: Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform 2009

Today the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies released its second annual report on the state of human rights in the Arab world for the year 2009. The report, entitled Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, concludes that the human rights situation in the Arab region has deteriorated throughout the region over the last year. The report reviews the most significant developments in human rights during 2009 in 12 Arab countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen. It also devotes separate chapters to the Arab League and an analysis of the performance of Arab governments in UN human rights institutions.