Saudi Gazette report AL-KHOBAR — A female teacher at a primary school in Al-Khobar is being praised for saving the life of a seven-year-old girl student who was being tortured by her father and her Moroccan stepmother, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Tuesday. The girl, identified as Reem, is still in hospital with her mother at her bedside. The mother, who came from Riyadh, recently remarried. The teacher said Reem had been subjected to severe physical abuse. She said she was closely following up Reem's case because of the complete negligence of her parents. “Had it not been for the providence of Allah and the support of all people around me, Reem would have been dead by now,” the teacher said. She described Reem as a quiet girl who was only in need of sympathy and care. The teacher discovered the young girl was being abused when Reem came to the school one day suffering from thirst and hunger. A few days later she came to the school with a large bruise on her face. “When we asked her about how she got the bruise, she told us that she had fallen down,” the teacher said. “It was obvious the bruise could not be just the result of falling down.” She said Reem was again absent from school for some time but when she came back she showed signs of being badly beaten. She added: “Reem lay down on a bed unable to go even to the bathroom. When we asked what happened to her she would not tell us, but after we reassured her she told us that her father and her stepmother beat her.” The school called a doctor from a health center in Al-Khobar who asked for an immediate examination and x-rays. “We called the father to inform him about the health of his daughter but he told us that he would take her to the hospital where she already had an appointment,” the teacher said. The next day the girl came to the school looking worse than before. “The entire school was shocked. We immediately reported the case to the police who summoned the father, the stepmother and their children, who testified that it was the father and the stepmother who beat Reem,” said the teacher. “The children also said their father used to beat them regularly and even burned their feet.” The father was detained by the police in connection with another criminal offense while they were investigating the allegations of abuse against his daughter. Police decided to place the daughter in the custody of one of her father's relatives. The teacher said the next day the police called to inform her that the girl had rescinded the accusations against her father and stepmother. She said: “When we went to the police station we were shocked to find out that Reem was taken the previous evening to King Fahd University Hospital in Al-Khobar and had been badly beaten again.” The relative denied that the girl was beaten and claimed that she had fallen in the bathroom. The teacher said he refused to stay with the girl at the hospital. She added: “I had to accompany her at the hospital until her mother came from Riyadh.” Abu Saad, Reem's grandfather, said his granddaughter had gone through a difficult and painful experience. He added: “We had a bad time with her father until he agreed to divorce her mother and end the turbulent relationship between them.” Reem has a sister, four brothers, a half-sister and three half-brothers. Spokesman for the Human Rights Commission in the region Muhammad Al-Maadi said the organization was in constant contact with the female teacher and advised her to approach the authorities. He added: “Reem is in need of psychological care rather than medical care. Child abuse is not just an ethical issue but a crime that should be punished under the criminal law.” Police spokesman Lt. Col. Ziyad Al-Riqaiti said the father and stepmother were currently being questioned by the Prosecution and Investigation Commission (PIC) and the case will be handed over to the committee for family care at the Department of Social Affairs.
