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TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER

The Tahirih Justice Center was founded in 1997 to address the acute need for legal services of immigrant and refugee women who have fled to the U.S. to seek protection from human rights abuses.

Testimonial Story of Abused Saudi Arabia Young Woman Who Found Asylum & Support in the USA - Rana’s Story*

Some people can think back to happy childhood days. But all of my memories are only of violence and misery.

My name is Rana, and I am from Saudi Arabia. I was orphaned at a young age and left to the mercy of my two violent and cruel older brothers, Sa’ad and Ghafoor. Even when I was a small child, they beat me for speaking “too loudly” or for studying instead of cleaning up after them. As I grew older, the beatings only grew worse. I can not remember a time when I was free of violence.

Sa’ad, my eldest brother and head of the household, was particularly brutal. He routinely beat me—sometimes with his fists, sometimes with hard objects like belts or tape recorders—for wanting to complete my education and work. He would grow especially enraged at the paranoid thought that I might have a boyfriend, even though as a chaste, observant Muslim woman, I never did. Once, when I apparently received a marriage proposal from a suitor I had never met, Sa’ad decided to punish me. He grabbed a metal curtain rod and beat me so hard with it that the curtain rod was completely twisted and broken, and I had defecated on myself by the time he was done. Because the curtain rod had become useless, Sa’ad then picked up a chain and proceeded to whip me with it. This was only one of many horrible punishments I endured at Sa’ad’s hands.

In spite of the violence and harassment I faced from Sa’ad and Ghafoor, I still managed to complete my education. I was the only one in our family to do so. Instead of being proud of me, Sa’ad hated me all the more for it and continued to make my life miserable.

When I was about 25 years old, Sa’ad told me to prepare for my wedding. I was to be married to Sa’ad’s wife’s grandfather in exchange for a large dowry. An illiterate villager over 70 years old, he had two wives, several children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I was shocked and horrified, but when I protested, Sa’ad grew violent. I endured a forced engagement party, knowing that only God could save me from this horrible fate, since Sa’ad would kill me if I refused to marry the old man.

My prayers were answered when I sought the assistance of my kind and sympathetic cousin in the United States, who then convinced Sa’ad to send me to America on the pretense of a wedding shopping trip. After I fled, I found the Tahirih Justice Center, which not only helped me receive asylum, but also worked to ensure that I had the psychological counseling I needed to begin to heal the lifetime of violence that I had endured.

Rana received asylum in the United States in 2007. She is currently pursuing further education and is happily married to a man of her own choosing.





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