Tariq Al-Maeena tells a remarkable story in his column in today’s Arab News. The story is about how a Saudi woman, the object of domestic abuse by her husband while he was studying in the US, found greater justice in secular America than she did through her Saudi family and compatriots. What is even more eye-popping, is that a senior Saudi cleric, Ayed Al-Qarni, noticed and stated that he wished Saudi society could follow the practice of Islam as well as America!

To be honest, the way the woman and her family were treated by social services and the police in Ohio is remarkable in its own right. Most victims of domestic abuse do not meet quite the generosity she appears to have received. Still, it is what it is.

‘I wish I was American’
TARIQ AL-MAEENA

The plight of abused women in this country is swept under carpet

Not so long ago, hard-liner turned-reformed cleric Ayed Al-Garni wrote a piece entitled, “I wish I was American” on the plight of a married Saudi woman caught in an abusive marriage and far away from home.

The story revolves around a Saudi student who went to the United States to work on his MBA. He was accompanied by his wife and two children, a daughter aged 8 and a son who was 6 years old. The family initially settled in Richmond, Virginia not far from where the husband had to pursue his studies.

It was not long after that the husband’s abusive nature toward his wife began to display itself, first with words and then physical assault that on more than one occasion caused bodily harm. The wife’s cry for help during such times would invariably draw the attention of their neighbors, married Saudi couples themselves, who would try to intervene and play the peacemakers, demanding that the husband refrain from such violence toward his wife. They even contacted the wife’s parents in Saudi Arabia to put some pressure on the husband to ease his aggression.
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