Shomouk's father was in Makkah working as a taxi driver when his brother rang to tell him that his daughter died at the hospital. When he got to the hospital, the police told him that his daughter had been murdered by his wife. Despite the heinous crime committed against 7-year-old Shomoukh, he seemed to be in control of himself when he told Okaz/Saudi Gazette about his family's story. “I would find marks of violence on my daughter's body even before she was killed. I would ask her mother about these traces but she would deny beating Shomoukh. She later admitted and swore putting her hand on the Holy Qur'an that she wouldn't be violent with my daughter,” he said. “I demand the court render death sentence on her,” he added. Shomoukh was buried Tuesday in Taif. Forensic doctors found marks of contusions on her abdomen which they believed were sustained while Shomouk was trying to run away from her mother. “Shomouk stayed strong and never said anything about her mother's violence. She only talked about it when I asked her after noticing that she was complaining about a pain in her shoulder.” Shomoukh had two brothers and a seven-month-old sister. Her brother Faisal is a second elementary grader and keeps asking his father where Shomoukh went. The father is adamant his wife deserves the death penalty. “My wife didn't have any psychological disorder and she's never been admitted to a psychological clinic,” he said. A representative of the National Society for Human Rights, Naif Al-Thaqafi, offered her father condolences and said the NSHR will write a detailed report about the incident and will investigate further. “This is not the first victim of child violence and won't be the last. The murder of Shomouk was heinous in the full sense of the word. It poses a lot of questions about the importance of laying down child protection laws,” Al-Thaqi said. Saudi Gazette reported Thursday that Shomouk's mother stabbed her daughter to death with a screwdriver, for refusing to do her daily exercises to heal her fractured arm. The mother, who is over 20 years of age, had a history of abuse against her daughter. She allegedly broke Shomouk's arm two months back due to excessive beating. This time she stabbed her daughter in several parts of the body disregarding completely her child's cries for her to stop. __
