Re: Abortion is legal?
**Please refer to the part where practice of Al-Mesyar is discussed, this is possibly the reason why the husband was reluctant to entertain any longterm relationship with this women. **
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/nea/817.htm
Saudi Arabia
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 23, 2001
Discrimination Against Women.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Disability, Language, or Social Status
There is legal and systemic discrimination based on sex and religion. The law forbids discrimination based on race, but not nationality. The Government and private organizations cooperate in providing services for the disabled. The Shi’a religious minority suffers social, legal, and sectarian discrimination.
Women
The Government does not keep statistics on spousal abuse or other forms of violence against women. However, **based on the information available regarding physical spousal abuse and violence against women, such violence and abuse appear to be common problems. Hospital workers report that many women are admitted for treatment of injuries that apparently result from spousal violence. **Some foreign women have suffered physical abuse from their Saudi husbands. A Saudi man may prevent his wife and any child or unmarried adult daughter from obtaining an exit visa to depart the country (see Section 2.d.). Foreign embassies continued to receive many reports that employers abuse foreign women working as domestic servants. Some embassies of countries with large domestic servant populations maintain safehouses to which their citizens may flee to escape work situations that include forced confinement, withholding of food, beating and other physical abuse, and rape. Often the reported abuse is at the hands of female citizens. In general the Government considers such cases family matters and does not intervene unless charges of abuse are brought to its attention. It is almost impossible for foreign women to obtain redress in the courts, due to the courts’ strict evidentiary rules and the women’s own fears of reprisals. Few employers have been punished for such abuses. There are no private support groups or religious associations to assist such women.
By religious law and social custom, women have the right to own property and are entitled to financial support from their husbands or male relatives. However, women have few political or social rights and are not treated as equal members of society. There are no active women’s rights groups. Women legally may not drive motor vehicles and are restricted in their use of public facilities when men are present. Women must enter city buses by separate rear entrances and sit in specially designated sections. Women risk arrest by the Mutawwa’in for riding in a vehicle driven by a male who is not an employee or a close male relative. **Women are not admitted to a hospital for medical treatment without the consent of a male relative. **By law and custom, women may not undertake domestic or foreign travel alone (see Section 2.d.). In 1999 the Ministry of Interior announced that preparations were underway to issue identity cards to women, which would have been a step toward allowing women to establish independent legal identities from men. However, the Ministry announced in August that the current identification document system for women would be maintained for another 3 years, and that identity cards therefore would not be issued.
Women also are subject to discrimination under Shari’a as interpreted in Saudi Arabia, which stipulates that daughters receive half the inheritance awarded to their brothers. In a Shari’a court, the testimony of one man equals that of two women (see Section 1.e.). **Although Islamic law permits polygyny, with up to four wives, it is becoming less common due to demographic and economic changes. Islamic law enjoins a man to treat each wife equally. In practice such equality is left to the discretion of the husband. Some women participate in Al-Mesyar (or “short daytime visit”) marriages, in which the women relinquish their legal rights to financial support and nighttime cohabitation. Additionally, the husband is not required to inform his other wives of the marriage, and any children resulting from such a marriage have no inheritance rights.**The Government places greater restrictions on women than on men regarding marriage to non-Saudis and non-Muslims (see Section 1.f.). While Shari’a provides women with a basis to own and dispose of property independently, women often are constrained from asserting such rights because of various legal and societal barriers, especially regarding employment and freedom of movement.