Saudi to strip abusive parents of custody

Saudi Arabia is getting closer to issuing a law paving the way to deny abusive parents custody over their children, in compliance with an Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) rule that says “No custody for the corrupt parent”, press reports said Sunday.

The Saudi cabinet has just finished studying the Child Protection Program proposed by the National Commission for Childhood and will then present it to the Consultative Assembly for discussion, according to Saudi daily Okaz.

Secretary General of the Commission Mohamed al-Qadiri announced that a court ruling could very soon turn the directive into law.

The proposal came in the wake of a remarkable increase in domestic violence cases of which children constitute a considerable portion. The Ministry of Social Affairs receives around 12 cases of physical abuse every day and some of them are filed by children, Okaz reported.

Stories of child abuse at the hands of their parents have infuriated public opinion in the kingdom during the past couple of years. One of the most shocking stories was that of an 11 year old girl who was killed by her father.

The father beat his daughter then tied her to a door in the house and went out to run errands. When he came back, she was already dead. The father said he was disciplining his daughter for being naughty.

According to press reports, the girls’ parents were separated and the daughter lived with her father and stepmother. The father denied his wife had anything to do with what happened to his daughter.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)