February 19, 2010
Contact:
Lakshmi Anantnarayan, +1 212 586 0906, lanant@equalitynow.org
HISTORIC DECISION IN FORCED DIVORCE CASE IN SAUDI ARABIA REUNITES COUPLE AFTER FOUR YEARS OF SEPARATION
EQUALITY NOW COMMENDS KING ABDULLAH FOR RE-EXAMINATION OF FORCED DIVORCE
DECISION AND URGES SAUDI ARABIA TO REVOKE MALE GUARDIANSHIP
Reunion
of siblings Suleiman and Nuha
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Saudi
Arabia – International human rights organization Equality
Now welcomes the decision of Saudi Arabia’s
Supreme Judiciary Council to overturn an earlier court ruling of forced divorce
in the case of Fatima Bent Suleiman and Mansour El Timani. After four years of
separation, the couple and their children were finally reunited on February 17,
2010. Over the past year, Equality
Now has actively advocated for the reunification of the family, calling on King
Abdullah to annul the divorce by overturning the decision of the High Court of
Jof. In September 2009, Equality Now was informed that King Abdullah had
ordered the Supreme Judiciary Council to re-examine the decision in the case.
“We hope this annulment will set a precedent for the other possible forced
divorce cases in Saudi Arabia,”
said Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director of Equality Now.
In
2003 Fatima Bent Suleiman and Mansour El Timani were happily married. The
couple had two children, a daughter Nuha born in May 2004, and a son, Suleiman
born in November 2005. In just over a year after the marriage, following the
passing away of Fatima’s father, her half-brothers filed a petition in the High
Court of Jof asking the judge to divorce Fatima from
Mansour on the grounds that he was of “inferior background.” Fatima
believes her inheritance from her father may have been one of the reasons
behind the divorce petition.
Fatima
and Mansour were forced to divorce against their will, initially by the first
instance court and reaffirmed after their appeal was rejected by the Cassation
Court, the highest court in Saudi
Arabia. When Fatima
refused to separate from Mansour, she was imprisoned, with no apparent legal
basis, with her two children for nine months until April 2007. Upon being
released from prison, Fatima, had no option but to live
in a state-run orphanage with her son and Mansour, who had to move constantly
in fear of the police, looked after their daughter. The Saudi government had
blacklisted Mansour for refusing to sign the divorce papers, which effectively
barred him from working, owning property, or even getting a driver’s license.
Fatima and Suleiman had not seen Mansour and Nuha in over three years.
Forced
divorces are not an isolated issue in Saudi
Arabia, rather they are symptomatic of a
larger problem of male guardianship in the country. The fact that adult women
have to depend on approval from male guardians for a variety of daily activities
such as travel, education, employment, financial transactions, decisions in
marriage and even medical procedures and treatment, severely curtails women’s
ability to exercise their rights. Taina Bien-Aimé continues, “The Saudi
government has denied the existence of guardianship of women before the UN
Human Rights Council and yet the case of Fatima and Mansour is proof that it
continues to exist. We urge King Abdullah to end male guardianship in the
country once and for all. Saudi women are entitled to the enjoyment of their
fundamental rights without interference.”
Equality
Now is an international human rights organization based in New York,
Nairobi and London
that works to protect and promote the civil, political, economic and social
rights of girls and women. Equality Now’s Women’s Action Network comprises over
35,000 groups and individual members in 160 countries. For more information
please visit www.equalitynow.org.