JEDDAH, 3 March 2005 — Marriages usually begin with full of hope for families, but many Moroccan women who have married Saudi men find themselves divorced or abandoned and without financial resources to care for their children as their Saudi fathers shun their responsibilities.
According to Al-Watan newspaper, there are many successful marriages between Saudi men and Moroccan women; however, when such unions turn bad, they can turn very bad.
One Moroccan woman got help from the husband’s family to get a divorce after he moved her into a tent and started using her as an ashtray. She married him when she was 21, resided with him in Saudi Arabia and became a citizen. When her husband built a farm in Hail, they moved there — to a tent. She was constantly sick and always recovering from the daily beatings she received.
“He burned my body with cigarettes. His family separated me from him after I threatened to commit suicide,” she said. Her son never saw his father except in photos. She traveled to Riyadh many times and demanded that he see his son, but he had no interest in him. The son used to request his mom not to say in front of his friends that his father didn’t care about him.
The government has taken the initiative to care for these children and included them in special schools to qualify them educationally and emotionally. Crown Prince Abdullah has granted the youngsters a monthly stipend of SR2,000 to help them with living expenses.
Another Moroccan woman said she got married to a violent Saudi man who turned out to have alcohol and drug problems. She lived with him in Saudi Arabia for one year and discovered that he was careless, using drugs and constantly drinking alcohol. He used to beat her up, and she was forced to leave for Morocco. Her daughter got sick in Morocco suffering from epilepsy. She complained to the Saudi Embassy in Morocco and every time she goes there, they collect money for her to help her daughter.
“I told them that I don’t have any money,” she said. “My mother is dead; my father is retired, and I do not have enough money to treat my daughter. My husband divorced me and sent me my passport. I complained to the Saudi Embassy; they now give me SR2,000 a month. My husband is threatening me to take my daughter when she is seven years old, but I just keep telling him that he would have to kill me first before he takes her from me.”
Even trying to get child support can be a difficult task.
Another Moroccan woman was married to a Saudi man for 12 years. She was 24 when she got married to him. She had two children with her Saudi husband in addition to one child from a previous marriage. She lived with him for five years in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the time she was with him in Morocco. The couple had compatibility problems, and she divorced him. “I filed a lawsuit against my husband to pay for child expenses,” she said. “He tried to avoid appearing in court, but in the end the court ruled that he should pay for child support.”
