A Saudi study finds that economic abuse of women in the Kingdom is widespread:
Social, verbal and economic abuse of women is more widespread in Saudi society than physical and sexual abuse, according to a recent study on violence against women.
The study, which was conducted by Khaled Al-Radihan, 51, an assistant professor of anthropology at King Saud University in Riyadh, involved 267 women....
Al-Radihan said that economic abuse is when the husband forcefully takes his wife’s money or when he applies for a bank loan under her name without her consent. The results of his research showed that 67 percent of women suffer from economic abuse.
“Economically abusing a woman also includes depriving her of her inheritance, which is very common here,” he added.
But why are Saudi women subject to all this abuse?
Well, that's a tricky one...
Many reasons lead to violence against women. She could be really stubborn and difficult to deal with, she might have unbearable financial demands and she might not obey her male guardian, said Al-Radihan.
Ah.
Be fair. 150 years ago you could have argued that in an English court. Though you have to go back to mediaeval times for honour killings, and that was generally restricted to the gentry. Rememeber slavery was only abolished there in the early 60s.
Posted by: Laban Tall | December 22, 2008 at 04:47 PM