year-old Hamda Al-Amiri has been seeking a divorce for 14 years from her “tyrant” of a husband who says he will only grant her wish upon receiving the SR105,000 dowry he paid to marry her. Living off quarterly assistance from Al-Birr Society and in charity accommodation in north Jeddah, Hamda says she has spent nearly a decade and a half making interminable visits to courts, offices of the Ministry of Social Affairs, and civil society organizations “in pursuit of freedom.” “I used to put up with all the oppression from my husband in order to keep my children and stay close to them, but eventually I was forced to leave home 14 years ago after I couldn't get him to do the right thing by me and when he started to threaten to kill me before kicking me out of the house,” Hamda said. From that day on Hamda went knocking at the doors of the courts seeking a way out as her husband continued to taunt her, preventing her from seeing her children. “At the end of a long process and lots of hearings, the court refused to annul our marriage, based on what grounds I have no idea,” she said. “How am I supposed to live such a life with someone like that?”
