MAKKAH — The Justice Ministry's decision estimating the amount received by a divorced woman in monthly alimony at SR633 has been described as “disappointing and unfair” by a number of economists, a report in Makkah daily said on Wednesday. The experts were unanimous that the alimony would not enable divorced women to meet even the basic necessities of daily life. They noted that the amount, which was decided by the ministry's alimony fund, is less than the monthly social assistance of SR862 paid to poor and needy Saudi individuals. The ministry said it decided on the amount after studying the alimony cases of 677 divorced women in the courts of Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah. The ministry, however, did not say if the alimony covers children or not. The ministry said it was the special review committee of the Saudi courts which made the estimation. It said the committee had discussed with the Ministry of Social Affairs and studied the experiences of other countries, mainly Bahrain, before deciding the amount of the monthly alimony. According to the ministry, the estimation of Riyadh courts, which have 217 alimony cases, started with SR130 and went up to SR3,000 while the estimation presented by the Jeddah courts, which have 281 cases, started with SR100 and went up to SR5,000. It said the Makkah courts, with 52 cases, gave figures between SR50 and SR1,000 and the department of personal affairs in Jeddah said the monthly alimony could start with SR200 and go up to SR2,000. “The average of all these figures is SR633, which we have adopted as monthly alimony for female divorcees,” the ministry said. Fadl Abuainain, an analyst, ridiculed the decision and said the ministry did not consider the “adequacy limit” or the “poverty line when it made its estimation.” The ministry did not consider the high cost of living so it came up with an illogical figure,” he added. Eissa Al-Ghaith, a Shoura Council member, described the ministry's figure as “insulting” and said that divorced women even in the poorest countries would not accept this amount. “The figure should have been estimated by experts who have complete knowledge of the Kingdom's economic situation and the prices of commodities and services,” he said. Al-Ghaith said the ministry should have also sought the help of non-government organizations, such as King Khaled Foundation, which have sufficient expertise in these areas.
