A mother of five young children is seeking urgent protection from her allegedly abusive ex-husband with the Saudi and Pakistani authorities. She accuses him of threatening to kill her, their children and her new husband. Her ex-husband, Mushtaq Ahmed, could not be reached to respond to the allegations. Umm Talha said she divorced Ahmed after a struggle of almost a year. They were married for 16 years. Their children are still on his Iqama and are aged between five and 16. She claimed that he has threatened to take their children and send them to Pakistan where they have no relatives. She claimed that Ahmed was never responsible and she had to pay all their living expenses during their marriage. They had lived in her house. She also accused him of selling her jewelry to buy himself a car. She also accused Ahmed of physically and emotionally abusing her during their marriage. And that he was allegedly involved in gambling and other unlawful activities. “I got separated and divorced, and then married again to protect myself and my children from that devil. He was poisoning the minds of my children against me. He was filling their minds with filthy language. He has no shame and talked with them about sex and adult relationships. He is a mentally sick person. Please save my children from him,” pleaded Umm Talha. She claimed that he often stands in an alley close to her house and hurls obscenities at her and the family. “I want justice under Saudi law. How can a man who is not my mahram call me and my husband filthy names, threaten to rape me, and kill me and my husband. He has no rights over me but still wants to destroy my reputation in front of people and my children. Please save me from this harassment. All my neighbors are witnesses to his behavior and torture,” she said. Umm Talha told Saudi Gazette that after she got separated from Ahmed, he allegedly forced her to have a relationship with him. This is when their fifth child was born. She has filed a complaint against him at Azizia police station. She said the Pakistani consulate has also promised to help her. She thanked the head of the chancery and the consul of the welfare department, for helping her. Nasrullah Khan Watto, Welfare Consul at the Pakistani Consulate here, told Saudi Gazette they have received Umm Talha's application and are taking the matter seriously. However, he said that the fate of the children lies with the courts. “According to the law, children under seven years of age usually fall under the custody of the mother. Older children have the right to choose where they want to stay.” He said she will be assisted in the transfer of her Iqama, and that a case has been filed against Ahmed. Talha, the 16-year-old eldest son, has backed up his mother's claims. He also accused his father of verbal abuse, death threats and for threatening to send them to Pakistan. “We don't want to go with him. Our mother is the one who took care of us and we want to live with her.” He said that he and his siblings, Owais, 14, Osama, 12, and Bilal, 8, are afraid to go to school. He said he is happy to live with his mother and stepfather Khalid Mahmood Siddique. Siddique told Saudi Gazette that he was also fed up with the harassment. He said he married Umm Talha to help her and her children escape from the abuse. He said the children will be “destroyed” by Ahmed if he is given custody.
