Saudi Arabia: Astoundingly Stupid Child Welfare Decision

Abused Girl of Buraidah

Lulwa Shalhoub (Arab News)

Schoolteachers in Buraidah, about 300 km northwest of Riyadh, intervened on behalf of a nine-year-old student after they noticed signs of abuse, including bruises and an unkempt appearance.

“The girl is now in the children’s shelter home supervised by the Ministry of Social Affairs,” said Fahd Al-Mutlaq, president of Qasim’s Social Security Committee…

The father of the child is being treated in a mental institution, said Al-Mutlaq. The mother has a second child, a girl about two years younger, but Al-Mutlaq says she is being treated humanely by the mother and has, therefore, not been taken into state custody.

“There is no danger to the younger girl,” he said. “The mother was only abusing her older daughter.”

This sort of thing makes my head hurt. If they think this woman was abusing one child, then all children should be removed from her custody. Period.