The brother of two girls who were rescued this week by the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) from their home-jail for 10 years – a small dingy room with no windows and only a small ventilation hole high up near the ceiling – says he had no choice but to do that to his sisters. “It was only to protect them from the evils of this world since they had a psychiatric illness from childhood,” he told the authorities in a statement. He said he locked up his sisters soon after their parents divorced and their father became paralyzed. He feared for the girls as they would rip off their clothes and break the windows because of their psychiatric condition, he said. The brother, identified by the authorities only by the initials A.M., categorically denied that he had meant to cause his sisters physical or mental harm. “I've never ever beaten them despite their aggression - they would break the doors, windows and electric appliances.” He decided to lock them up after neighbors advised him to protect their family's reputation and image, he said. “All I meant to do was prevent them from going out,” he said. “Other than that, I would serve them food and took them to the clinic regularly.” A.M. said he had tried but failed to give his sisters a better life than in the 30X30 cm that had a walled up window and a small toilet. This was he could afford. Last year he had applied to the Social Affairs Department to take care of his sisters and treat them. “They (the Social Affairs officials) asked me to get my father's consent, which I got and submitted.” “But they did not do anything,” he said in his statement. Captain Ahamd Jaber Al-Wadani, spokesman of Jizan Police, said that it is a police case and that A.M. and his aged father have given their testimonies.
