HAIL — A 13-year-old girl in Hail who was physically and verbally abused by her mother has been handed over to the custody of a social protection home, the Dammam-based Alsharq newspaper reported on Wednesday. The girl's case had been widely reported on and the social protection department finally stepped in and took her away from the custody of her abusive mother. A female social worker from the department visited Noura Al-Rashidi at her home and decided to take her away from her mother after it became apparent that the mother had been violently abusing her daughter. Al-Rashidi is in her first year of middle school. She has five siblings — two brothers and three sisters. According to Fahd Al-Otaibi, director of the department, the girl's 80-year-old father, who was retired from the military, died last month. He described the mother as a psychopath who has been abusing her daughter for a long time. Al-Otaibi said the department has been following up with the case since it was first reported on in the media in 2010. "We have been sending social workers to visit her at her home and to communicate with the student counselor at her school," he added. The director refuted claims that the department hesitated to intervene because the complaint did not come from her or a family member. "We accept complaints from any one regarding cases of domestic violence whether they come from neighbors, schools or the police," he said. Fatima Al-Shammri, director of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Hail, said the commission received a complaint about the case and forwarded it to the social protection department within two days because it is the concerned executive body. She said the department has the right to enter homes, investigate cases and assess the condition of the family. "The HRC is a supervisory body that follows up cases of domestic violence to report them to the concerned authorities," she said. She added that she talked to Al-Otaibi on Tuesday and he told her that the girl was doing well and was not at the hospital as had been reported earlier. “I was surprised that the case resurfaced again after it had died down following solemn pledges by the mother never to abuse her daughter again,” she added.
