Saleh Al-Turigee Okaz newspaper PERHAPS the most infamous Adhl case, which is when a woman's male guardians prevent her from marrying, was that of a doctor in Madinah who spent 10 years in a group home for women before she lost the lawsuit she had filed against her father for preventing her marriage even though she was well over 40 years of age. Many people consider this a rare case and say this sort of thing is not common enough for the rules regarding a male guardian's permission to marry to be amended. But is this really a rare case or do we simply not know how many women are prevented from marrying by their male guardians? Surely there must be silent sufferers out there. I think knowing how the three parties responsible for ensuring justice prevails – the judge, lawyer and prosecutor – think about the Adhl problem will help us know if the case of the doctor is an isolated one or not. The judge believes that the woman should carefully consider the reasons why her male guardian is refusing to marry her. He also thinks her guardian may have valid reasons, including the possibility that her prospective groom may be a man without ethics or religion, poor, have a hereditary disease or even a criminal record. “These are enough reasons for Adhl. Any complaint by any woman in this regard will be dismissed by the court,” the judge hearing the case was quoted as saying. All of this means that the judge believes that the woman, despite her age, is not rational enough and may be putting herself in great risk by picking who she wants to marry. Meanwhile, the lawyer sees obedience to parents as the most sacred Islamic duty that will apparently be lost if a girl decides to take her father or brother to court to be relieved from their guardianship. He said women should not rush things and instead try to convince their guardians in a “friendly way so that family ties are not broken.” I don't think it's necessary to mention what the prosecutor, a person who usually asks the court to punish the defendants, has to say about the matter.Just by looking at things from the involved parties' perspectives, we get an idea about the number of women who are prevented from marrying by their male guardians. And as long as judges continue to believe that women, regardless of age and education, are irrational and lawyers ask them to give up their rights and listen to their guardians, women will continue to suffer in silence.
