Writing in today’s issue of Arab News, Walaa Hawari tells the 
shocking story of a mentally and physically disabled Saudi woman who was married off by her father for money – without her consent and to a man she had never met.

The woman, identified by the name Fatima, suffered brain injuries in a car crash at the age of 14, which left her partly paralysed and suffering from memory loss. Several years later, following her mother’s death and abandonment by her father, she is being cared for by an aunt.

Her marriage only came to light when the aunt tried to register her for a rehabilitation programme and was informed that her paperwork was wrong.

“The rehabilitation centre requested a new paper saying Fatima was no longer on her father’s family card according to their database but on ‘her husband’s’ family card,” the aunt told Arab News.

The aunt added that she was able to find out Fatima’s “husband’s” name and workplace. “We then filed a complaint at a court and a police station in the Makkah area, but no action was taken,” she said, adding that she pursued Fatima’s rights for four years, arguing back and forth with her father.

It emerged that her “husband” was already married to a Bedouin woman from the Empty Quarter and had paid to marry Fatima in order to transfer her identity to his first wife.

Following intervention by the Saudi Human Rights Commission, the paper says, Fatima’s “husband” has now granted her a divorce.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 13 October 2009.