Abused Saudi girl's father sues human rights association
The father of a saudi girl who was severly beaten by her stepmother is suing the National Human Rights association for defamation. He claims they had no right photographing the bruises and marks on his daughter and publishing them and by doing so they defamed his family. The gall that same people have amazes me at times. The father of a six-year-old Saudi girl subjected to family violence has filed a defamation case at the Board of Grievances against the National Human Rights Association. The father's complaint, which will be looked into by the board, is the first lawsuit of its kind against the National Human Rights Association (NHRA). The father also accused the Education Department in Taif city and the headmistress of his daughter's school of taking photographs of his daughter, showing torture marks on her body. The girl, called Rahaf, spent six days at King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah as a result of being severely beaten and abused by her stepmother. She chose to leave the hospital with her father's uncle, with whom she had been living before her father married her stepmother and she moved in with them. In his complaint, Rahaf's father said the NHRA should have followed other methods without defaming him and his family. Nevermind that his 6 year old girl was beaten so much by her stepmother that she had to spend 6 days in the hospital. That doesn't piss him off. What pisses him off is that people found out about it. That's the real problem. Sigh...
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 12/07/2005 01:13:00 AM
2 Comments:
Is this related to the "honor code" we keep hearing so much about?
Jordan...the beating is not part of the "honor code" though women and children have been beaten for very little under this pretense. The beatings were just plain old child abuse.
What the father is trying to claim is that the pictures of his daughter's marks are dishonorable probably because it showed her skin if not large parts of her naked body. Now that is considered dishonorable and supposedly reflects on the entire family. The same way a daughter holding hands with some guy who isn't her husband or kissing him or, Allah forbid, having sex. That is the highest insult to the family.
According to this code, if the girl sins or does something against the law, it reflects badly on the parents ability to raise her and on the entire families morality. Its the blood taint.
and so, to wash it away, generally the the family will kill the woman (sister, daughter, aunt, etc, etc, etc) to show that they disapprove and to re-instate their morality.
The only plus side to this story is that this guy is suing people instead of killing the kid. then again, if he had control of her, who knows what they would do?
Now, that's not to say that everyone does this, but it is to say, if a board is hearing his complaints as if they were valid, that people still consider this honor to be above the pain (or death) inflicted on the victim. As a matter of fact, the victim is not a victim, but becomes the criminal.
It's just wrong.
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