Daniel Akill's Blog | 152: LEFT WITH FEW CHOICES, WIDOWS RELY ON CHARITY OR THE STATE

152: LEFT WITH FEW CHOICES, WIDOWS RELY ON CHARITY OR THE STATE – OR LEFT AT THE MERCY OF LOCAL COURTS

29 February, 2008

LEFT WITH FEW CHOICES, WIDOWS RELY ON CHARITY OR THE STATE – OR LEFT AT THE MERCY OF LOCAL COURTS

Arab News Thursday, 28^th Feb. 2008

RIYADH – Umm Koloud, a 41-year-old Saudi mother of six girls whose husband died seven months ago, lives in a squalid apartment in Athoqbah, Eastern Province. She gets SR 2,100 in social insurance every month, over half of which goes to rent. She and her daughters live under constant threat of eviction. They simply cannot afford the exorbitant rent every month.

Umm Koloud is only one of Saudi Arabia’s estimated 182,403 widows, most of whom scrape by with little or no support from blood relatives or in-laws.

For Saudi women – and all women in Arab and Arab-speaking countries, for that matter – the death of a husband often means more than losing a loved one; it is the beginning of a phase of more responsibilities, challenges and economic uncertainties. Some widows are left with relatives reluctant to take them in or offer even modest financial support.

And because of the Saudi guardianship laws, most of these widows are caught between the rock of an indifferent extended family and the hard place of a system that prohibits them from managing many of their own affairs.

Male guardians or Mahrams – a husband, father, brother, or son – are required to sign on behalf of women. Women who have no one to be their Mahram have no alternative but to become wards of the state; under the guardianship and at the mercy of local Islamic Courts.

Saedah F., 36, got married at 19 to a man much older than her. She never graduated from high school. She’s the mother of numerous children. When her husband passed away, the women who married him before her got most of the inheritance set aside for his wives.

A Sociologist said that the Saudi custom of parents forcing young girls to marry older men is mostly to blame for many relatively young women becoming widows. Although forced marriage is forbidden in Islam, many girls find it difficult not to submit to the marriage wills and selections made by their parents.

Marriage is viewed as a way to get out from under the yoke or tyranny of parents, too; forcing girls to make hasty decisions that might be the most contributing, if not the main, factor to Saudi Arabia’s growing divorce rate.

Like divorcees, widows are faced with the “damaged-goods syndrome” or stigma.

Fatimah Hussan, whose husband is currently serving 17 years in prison and still has 15 years to go, has two children and cannot find a place to put them while she’s at work. She survives in part through charity from neighbours and friends. Her social insurance disbursements barely cover what she pays in rent annually.

The Ministry of Social Affairs provides welfare to Saudi widows who are landless and with at least two children. However, as soon as a son turns 18, the mother becomes dependent upon him and is no longer eligible for ministry disbursement based on being a single-woman head of a household.

According to a women’s rights activist and member of the non-governmental National Society of Human Rights (NSHR); depending on financial help is not a cure for the predicaments of these widows, but a lame treatment of the symptoms.

She stated that surviving on charity exacerbates the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness in widows! What would give them hope was to implement programmes to help widows recuperate their emotional losses and regain their sense of being simply ‘persons, and not slaves, servants, or properties’ was to encourage them to be active members of society. Vocational and other educational courses would be a positive step.

Now – dear readers and fellow-Apes – the above are further proof of what I stated in my postings stated below – in that order – to avoid repetitious repetitions. All my Postings are now numbered:

27: NO WOMEN’S RIGHTS FOR RIGHT WOMEN Arab women in Arab countries

63: THE ARAB GIRL Part I

66: THE ARAB GIRL – Part two

124: ARAB WOMEN: THE OTHER HALF – IF NOT THE BETTER HALF

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