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[JEDDAH, 26 February 2008] - The Ministry of Education has sent notices to schools across the Kingdom advising them to inform the National Society for Human Rights of any suspected cases of child abuse at home, according to the head teacher of a girls’ school in Jeddah.
Although the notice has supposedly been sent to schools across the Kingdom, Fahad Al-Asmari, a vice principal of a boys’ school in Madinah, said that his school has not received any notices of the kind. Speaking about how his school deals with child abuse, Al-Asmari said, “We normally deal with such cases individually. ... We do not consult parents to avoid escalating the issue.” He added that the school informs the Consultant Department at the Ministry of Education, which in turn deals with such cases by taking the concerned child to hospital and informing the authorities. Al-Asmari said that children in the Kingdom are not aware of speaking out about abuse and are unable to clarify whether an act against them is abuse or not. He also called on the Ministry of Education to run campaigns educating pupils how to inform and speak about abuse. Laila, a teacher at a private kindergarten in Riyadh, said that her school is currently holding lectures instructing teachers how to deal with cases of abuse. “This is the first time that they are holding these lectures,” she said, adding that their results are yet to be seen. Samira Abbas, a sociologist at Al-Maharat Center, expressed concern that abuse against children tends to be hushed up and never comes to the surface. Abbas believes that living in small homes can lead to violence and abuse, adding that fathers can be aggressive if they come home to an uncomfortable atmosphere at home after work. “Abuse at home is not done by parents alone; it can be done by housekeepers,” she added. When asked how one should deal with such cases, she said that they should contact one of the parents and explain to them the dangers of child abuse. “It is rare that the two parents are abusive and that is a positive point,” she said. According to the Al-Watan newspaper, the Ministry of Education is currently carrying out a field study and asking schools to provide details of abuse cases that they have dealt with in the past four years. Suhaila Zain Al-Abidin, a member of the National Society of Human Rights, told Al-Madinah daily that they have addressed 1,429 domestic violence cases in the past three years. In the Riyadh region, 230 cases of abused children were documented last year, while 130 cases were identified in the Makkah region. According to recent statistics released by the Crime Research Center at the Interior Ministry, 21 per cent of Saudi children are abused at home. Specialists, however, state that these statistics only represent 10 per cent of all cases of abuse in the Kingdom. Further information
pdf: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=107160&d=25&m=2&y=2008...
