Fatimah Al-Otaibi Al-Jazirah newspaper WE often only focus on results and don't search for causes. A child died from her wounds; a son was killed when the gun fired accidentally; a girl ran away; a woman was severely tortured: these are all common headlines of stories that focus on results and not on the underlying reasons behind certain actions. It is high time we focus and deal with the issue of domestic violence against women and children. This topic should no longer be ignored or overlooked. I feel great pain when I read about innocent kids who get beaten by their parents or when a father beats his little son or daughter. When a Dawah activist who beat his daughter to death recently was arrested and the news came out, many people focused on the fact that the father was a Dawah activist. This fact is not important to me because many of the so-called Dawah activists suffer from psychological problems. Society should know how to differentiate between respectable religious scholars and some of the Dawah activists who used to lead a life full of sins then Allah guided them to the right path. We are not obliged to learn anything from the latter because our religion is clear and complete. Our role model is Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who was the most merciful person to women and children. We are not obliged to listen to those who claim to have a degree in Shariah or Dawah, especially those who enrolled themselves in a Shariah college because other colleges were full and could not take in more students. Many people think that anyone who graduates from a Shariah college or reads some Islamic books becomes qualified to say whatever he wants to say without expecting any disagreement. Let's focus on the most important question: Why and how does domestic violence happen? Studies showed that 42 percent of domestic violence cases occur due to poverty and the father's inability to provide for his family. As a result, the father uses violent methods against his children. They also showed that 90 percent of the female victims of domestic violence come from poor families. Those victims are deprived of the right to leave the house and work due to social or religious justifications. Some studies attributed the cause of violence, which results from poverty, to having a big family with several kids. The average number of children for the typical Saudi family is still high with the disappearance of the role of the extended family (i.e. parents, children, grandparents, aunts, etc). In the past, extended family members used to help the breadwinner or the father financially. Today, with the nuclear family (parents and children only), the father has to be solely responsible for providing for his family. Also, there is another important factor: Wives who are poor and/or uneducated do not have any sense of family planning. They keep having children because they believe that this is a sign of love between a husband and a wife. This situation exacerbates as the family gets bigger. This increases economic pressure on the father and makes him prone to becoming violent with his wife and children. It is important we have a law which punishes anyone who commits domestic violence. But what is more important is the fact that poor families should get financial aid and be provided with programs that increase their awareness about the causes of domestic violence.
