Fatima Starts Hunger Strike Despite HRC’s Reunion Assurances - Saudi Arabia/Marriage/Womens Rights
Ebtihal Mubarak; 25/3/08
A Saudi woman, who was forcibly divorced from her husband by a court in 2005 at the request of her half brothers, yesterday began the first day of a hunger strike despite officials saying that the couple would soon be reunited. “I won’t believe it till I see it… I’ll remain stuck in this shelter like an outcaste. Everyone asks me to be patient and wait,” said the woman known as Fatima. “Three years have passed now. I’m human at the end of the day and there is a limit to what I can put up with,” she told Arab News in a phone conversation, adding that no one understands what she was going through. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the government-run Human Rights Commission (HRC) gave assurances that the couple would be reunited. “The couple will soon be reunited,” said Zuhair Al-Harithy, HRC spokesman, without giving a timeframe.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=108217&d=25&m=3&y=2008