I killed to save my daughter’

A story from Abha’s prison

By Sabria S. Jawhar
The Saudi gazette
ABHA

FROM generation to generation, women inherit the difficulties of just being a woman. However, sometimes, society and circumstances combine to compound the difficulties to lethal effect.
L. Aseeri, a 40-year-old Saudi woman, perhaps personifies such a plight.
She is behind bars in Abha women s prison, convicted of deliberately killing her husband.
Sometimes she regrets killing her husband, but most of the time she doesn t.
She killed just to protect her only 5-year-old daughter, she told The Saudi Gazette.
He wanted to rape his own daughter, she claimed, I tried to stop him many times but he kept threatening me of doing that more and more.
But do threats justify murder?
When I killed him, she replied, I knew that he was able to do that and was about to.
Wasn t there any other recourse?
Her husband was a psychologically sick person and a drug addict, Aseeri said. He had sexually assaulted two of his daughters from his second wife when they were children, she alleged, but he could get away with it because of their mother s silence.
I didn t want my daughter to go through that in front of my eyes. Aseeri said.
She said she did try to seek help that she had told her brothers about it. But they refused to believe that a father could ever hurt his own daughter in such a manner. They told her to shut up and not bring shame to the family.
What about going to the police?
Asseri said she had thought of it but gave up for want of evidence of any rape attempt. She feared that the police would have brought her back to her husband s house not protect her or her daughter after that.
Besides, she went on, the police station was far away from her home and she could not go there alone, not without a male relative.
They will not allow me in to file my case without a Mehram (a male guard), and my male relatives don t believe me, she pleaded, though women in Saudi Arabia do have the right to report a case without a Mehram.
If you were in my position what would have you done?
Though actual rape in this case did not evidently take place, recent international studies by rape case experts suggest that some women avoid reporting sexual abuse or assault because of fear or distrust of authority.
In Saudi Arabia, women victims of sexual assault are made to undergo a forensic examination in order to gather evidence supporting their rape claim. This medical examination is essential to the progress of the case through the legal system.
However, the forensic investigation, while required by law, is rarely conducted in a way as to gather complete and compelling evidence of sexual assault as it is concentrated mainly on determining the state of the victim s hymen.
Legal experts believe that in cases of sexual abuse, other considerations should be given, using the court s general and special powers so to effect a fair hearing.
These include the special measures that allow evidence to be given in private under certain circumstances and the consideration of psychological and social factors.
Saudi lawyer Khalid Abu Rashed, deputy chief of the International Organization of Justice in Paris, said that from a humane point of view he sympathizes with Aseeri and understands a mother s feelings when caught in the situation she claims she was in.
However, he added, from a legal point of view such honor crimes should not be let go or looked at differently from any other crime.
Otherwise everyone will kill whosoever he wants to and then claim it was an honor killing, he said. In Islamic Shariah, the killer has to be killed no matter why he did it, except if the death happened during a proven defensive position.
He said Aseeri should have gone to the police and reported the case or even her husband s attempt to rape her daughter. They could have helped her and protected her daughter.
Killing should never be a solution for any problem no matter how big or how complicated it is, Abu Rashed said.
If Aseeri had reported the case and it was proven that the husband had raped his other two daughters, he would have been sent to death by the Islamic court, he said. The crime of rape, no matter what the relationship is between the rapist and the victim, is considered as a capital crime and punishable by death.
In Saudi Arabia, the criminal case panel of the Appellate Court usually consists of five judges who review sentences of death, stoning, amputation or Qisas (retaliatory punishment) in verdict other than death. For other cases, the panel consists of three judges.
Sentences of death, stoning, amputation, or Qisas in cases other than death that have been passed by the Appellate Court are not considered final unless they are affirmed by the Permanent Panel of the Supreme Judicial Council.
These facts make me sure that Aseeri s case was carefully studied and the judgment was passed accordingly, Abu Rashed said.
A psychologist, who asked not to be named, said violence in general and killing in particular are not part of women s nature.
Women usually kill when they have no other option, a fact that judicial systems all over the world rarely acknowledge, he said, This woman seemed to be really desperate and confused when she killed her husband.
He said women in rural areas like Mahail Aseer where Aseeri lived, are usually suppressed by men, and the concept of honor among them is so flawed that it causes confusion in the society.
In such areas women are totally dependent on men and only marriage can save a girl from the practices of her brothers, he said.
So, he deduced, Aseeri would never have taken the risk and killed her husband unless she was really forced to do so.
However, he emphasized that the circumstances of the crime must have been studied well for the court to issue the death penalty.
As for psychological evaluation of the accused, he said: I heard that usually psychiatrics see the prisoners as soon as they are jailed. But I don t know exactly what kind of tests they do and whether their psychological assessment of the prisoner s condition at the time of the killing is included as part of the case.
Omar Al Zobaidi, a media person, said the Saudi judicial system should be codified in a way that makes the psychologist, sociologist and psychiatrist part of the judicial system.
Such cases should not be handled by Islamic scholars only, he said, No one can deny the importance of the psychological factors in such a story.
He also stressed the importance of advising the convicted person of his rights including that of hiring a lawyer to whom he can talk to even before the investigation or the court hearing.
Saudi Arabia is embarking on extensive development of its penal system that is based on clearly defined scientific criteria and governed by statutory rules derived from the Islamic Shariah, so as to safeguarded and respect the rights of convicted persons.
However, several questions have been raised recently concerning the interpretation of the Islamic judicial regulations by some judges and whether other psychological and social circumstances should be taken into consideration in court especially when dealing with women s issues.
The Third National Dialogue that was devoted to women s issues and held in Madina earlier this year, called for the establishment of a national organization to deal with family and women s issues and to coordinate between governmental and civil institutions.
It also called for the establishment of domestic courts and for expanding women s sections within existing courts. Also, it recommended the establishment of a committee of experts in Shariah and social studies so as to separate traditions and customs from religious laws and ensure that only religious laws remain in effect.
Yet, according to several participants in the dialogue, nothing has been seen on the ground and the recommendations were added to a long list of demands that are waiting for regulations and procedures of implementation.
Today Aseeri s daughter is in the care of her elder sister. Aseeri said her sister was also a victim of the man she had killed.
But Aseeri s daughter is insisting on the death penalty for her father s second wife.
And she has support.
His children from his first wife have refused to pardon me as they are the owner of the blood, though they know what kind of a father they had and that I am telling the truth, Aseeri said.
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