Saudi Arabia: Woman Appeals to Governer for help in getting her divorce
The Muslim News
March 19, 2008
http://muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=14071

A southern Saudi Arabian woman is appealing to the governer of the area to help her break off her marriage with a man that she says has been abusing her. she says she has no choice but to seek the help of the governer becuase the Shariah court has rejected her plea for divorce. A judge told her that the only way she can get a divorce is if she repays the dowry the man had to pay to get her at the time of their marriage. But Um Hassan (the woman ) thinks that she shuoldnt have to pay anything. she thinks this becuase he stole her youth away and has ruined her life and she shouldnt have to pay him anything. she has been living with ehr mother and has requested to see her two duaghters but the saudi court wont let her. she also has a son that she says is abusive to her too. the police have told her to go to their equivalent of the district attorneys office. but a local lawyer says that will not help. Saud law says the only way that a calim such as this can be valid if it comes within three days of the abuse. Also the law says that since the girls are above 7 it is the fathers right to own them. Also, police arent allowed to help a woman unless her "male guardian" is present.

A) This relates to the theme of "Systems of Social Structure and Gender Structure." This relates to it becuase this arcticle is showing that although our society has come very far in bringing the status of women up, in some societies, unfortunately, this is not the case and women are still treated as being unequal.
B) The Historical backround of the issue is that in almost all societies throughout history women have not thought of as highly as men. Most societies like ours, the united states, and many countries in Europs and a few others women have raised their status. But in the Middle East today sadly women are still not treated well.
C) The author of this articles name is Hayat Al-Gamdi. I think it would be fair to assume he is from the area he is writing about. the way he speaks about the issue he seems to be on the inside, he probably lives in the area or has visited it and talked to the women before reporting on the issue.
D) Most of what he says seems to be fact, not opinion which is good becuase we dont have to worry about any skewing of the facts being reported.
E) In the article there are quotes from the woman herself, a various people that she has sought help from. i think it would be most helpful to hear from her husbands point of view to explain why he has acted the way he has and if there was any valid reason for acting is such a way.
F) I was very surprised when reading all of the laws about what women can do and not do. I knew that their status was low in this region, but i never stopped to think that they couldnt even get a divorce if they were being abused and that they couldnt even try to get custody of their children. it is very sad to hear these kind of things happeneing in the world because living where i do, it seems that everything is perfect, but when i read about other countries, thier lives are nothing like that.