MADINA: A Saudi woman has fled the Kingdom in the company of some of her brothers after her father's refusal to allow her to marry became a legal case of “uqouq” – parental disobedience. Another brother has been questioned by the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution after objecting to the case and standing by his sister. The 37-year-old woman from Madina told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that a foreign Arab suitor but from the same tribe asked for her hand in marriage. When he was turned down by her father, she took him to court. The judge, however, sided with the father, who said that a number of Saudi suitors existed and that it was his daughter who objected to them. When her father then brought a complaint charging parental disobedience, she was put before the very same judge at the General Court. Lawyer and former judge Ali Al-Anqari, who is representing the woman, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the judge who allowed the charge to change had committed a “judicial violation”. “Cases of ‘adhal (denying daughters the right to marry) are heard by the General Court,” he said. “Uqouq cases should be looked at by the District Court.” The woman herself said her Saudi suitors were unsuitable, describing one as “morally objectionable”, another as “having a skin disease”, while “some of the others are married”. “Any woman would object to those things,” she said. “The foreigner who came forward is from the same tribe as me and is from a neighboring country. He has high Islamic morals and is comfortable financially. My brothers know him very well through work, which is how we came to be acquainted.” The father, according to the terms of his court complaint, is demanding the return of his daughter from abroad and her punishment, as well as confiscation of her passport and a ban on her traveling abroad. The complaint states that he is “worried she might marry a non-Saudi while she is away”.
