Every day we read articles about the mistreatment and the abuse that many women around the world have to stand because of the patriarchy still present in many society. This is the case of Amani al Ahmadi and many other arab girls who are victims of a misguided idea that brings them to live in a continuous status of fear.
TESTIMONY
Amani al Ahmadi was only 10 years old when she was brought to the auditorium of a feminine school situated in Yanbu, a town in the province of A Madinah, in Saudi Arabia. There, Amani and her mates received the visit of a group of women who were part of Dar al Reaya, a structure for women’s detention. Immediately photos of small cells that could contain two or four people were shown to the girls. Then those images were screened depicting women with herpes and sexually transmitted diseases. In order to evade this fate the girls should have obeyed their families and should have avoid mingling with boys. Those are the first memories of Al Ahmadi, who today fights for women's rights against the way in which the Saudi government forces women to respect the patriarchal system.
TREATMENT OR DETENTION CENTRE?
Dar al Reaya is an institution whose name means, euphemistically, "nursing home’’. According to the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources, two types of women end up in Dar al Reaya structures: those who need strengthening of religious faith and those who deviated from the right path. In reality there are many more inmates. What is known about these structures comes from those who worked in the institutes and from ex-inmates, called nazeelat, such as Amani. The witnesses described the terrible mistreatment they were forced to endure and the status of fear that became part of their life. This fear arises even before ending up in these centres, a fear that forces women to submit themselves to the ‘’guardians’’.
LIFE AFTER Will women ever be released? Which will be their fate? Despite Dar al Reaya, another structure called Dar al Theyafa was established. It is reserved to those who have served their sentences and are waiting to go home. In these places women pass from the custody of the institution to the one of a guardian, the same person who sent them to prison or the one from whom they were trying to escape. It is rare for a woman to be welcomed back after being disowned; sometimes they are assigned to suitors who take them as their wives. Another thing they do to avoid this fate is to escape and find asylum abroad. Saudi Arabia is not a country for a woman, neither a country where a girl can find peace or feel safe: Saudi law is not for women.
Soruces O. Salem (2021 , February 5), Newlines - How the threat of the kingdom’s “Homes of Care” is causing women to flee abroad. Thobeka G. (2018, July 22), South African Human Rights Peace Activist - DAR AL REAYA- Female torture chambers in Saudi Arabia.
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