Al-Jazirah THE Shoura Council is currently working on a draft law to safeguard the rights of divorced mothers. Of course, it is a very good step. However, the painful thing is that some people have a mistaken belief that passing of a draft law by the Shoura means it would soon come into force. This is not correct. These people should realize that the Shoura is only a consultative body that cannot solve any problem by enacting legislation. On the other hand, the Shoura presents its proposals and draft laws to the government, which could either implement them or shelve them if it decides so. The mechanism for enacting these laws may have taken a number of years. At the same time, I want to emphasize the fact that the initiative by the Shoura to safeguard the rights of divorced mothers is useful to society. I want to thank the Shoura members for their commendable initiative. I mentioned these things as a prelude to the graveness of this issue. I received several e-mail messages from desperate mothers after they read the report about the Shoura move. All of them expressed their happiness that the move would be instrumental in changing the miserable condition of their children and themselves in their post-divorce lives. In fact, a divorce will be beneficial only for the men. This is what I can sum up from their comments. This fact forces many women prefer continuing their problematic married life than seeking a divorce. They know well that, with divorce, they will be deprived of most of their rights. In the Kingdom, the child support is very low compared to many of the Western countries. In the United States, the monthly child support ranges from $4,000 to $8,000, which is equal to SR15,000 to SR30,000. This amount covers the child's expenses for education, housing, healthcare and other requirements. On the other hand, the child maintenance costs only between SR500 and SR1,000 in the Kingdom. This amount is too little to meet their expenses even for two weeks. This eventually puts a big burden on the divorced mothers, who desperately struggle to meet ends meet. Most of them find no way to meet various expenses of their children. Moreover, these women are being treated as minors with regard to many matters such as issuance or renewal of passports and other documents for themselves as well as for their children. Similar is the case with their travel plans. The life becomes more troublesome for a divorcee and her children. At the same time, her former husband enjoys life uninterruptedly with full freedom either to remarry or travel to wherever he wants. It is high time to review the existing laws in a way safeguarding the rights of a divorcee in society as a full citizen. She is entitled to have full rights to lead a decent life for herself as well as for her children. Of course, nobody can deny the fact that the Kingdom's judiciary has undergone major reforms over the past few years. This positive and concrete change shall be extended to cover the genuine rights of divorced women and their children. These laws shall be well-known and specific so that their application will not differ from one judge to another. The personal laws cannot be subjected to change in accordance with the views and endeavors of a judge. Hence, there should be well-defined written laws sourced from the Islamic Shariah, which guarantees the legitimate rights of hapless divorcees and their children.
