Saudi Arabia – Women & Divorce in Saudi Courts

The process of divorce and its complexity varies from one country to
another. And when divorce cases are filed before the competent courts, the
estimated time to obtain judgments may depend upon the development of the law
and the maturity of the respective judicial systems.

In Saudi Arabia when the discord between a couple reaches an impasse, the
husband may divorce his wife amicably. Nevertheless, if the husband refuses to
divorce his wife amicably for any reason, the wife may be left with no option
but to file a divorce lawsuit against her husband, in order to get divorced.
Once the wife files her lawsuit against her husband before the court, her long
journey of suffering is initiated.

Some husbands may attempt to maneuver by not attending the first and second
court hearings just to delay the court proceedings. Judges have the right to
issue a police order to bring a husband to court, if he does not attend the
second court hearing. Usually, judges are reluctant to issue divorce judgments
if husbands do not attend the court hearings. This causes the proceedings to be
delayed. In most of the cases, other than divorce cases, the estimated time
between each court hearing could be from two to three months. Nevertheless, in
divorce cases the periods between the hearings might be longer as many judges
believe that longer periods could heal the wounds between the husbands and
wives and assist them to reconcile their differences.

In most of the divorce cases, it does not matter if the husband attends or
does not attend the court hearings. Normally the judge refers the case to the
Reconciling Committee, which tries to solve the problems between the couples
and reconcile their fractions, if the husband attends. Nonetheless, most of the
members of the said committee are not psychologists and they may not provide
proper marriage counseling, and thus in many cases the problems between the
married couples remain unsolved. If no agreement is reached between the
couples, the committee returns the case to the judge, who normally tries from
his side to reach a compromise between them (the married couples) as he might
be hesitant to issue a divorce judgment for some reasons, such as keeping the
family together and not tearing it apart, although the troubles are caused by
husbands in most of the times.

The proceedings of a divorce case may take up to three years, if not more,
before the final ruling is issued by the judge. Ironically, after this long
period, the judge may or may not issue a divorce ruling in favor of the wife,
depending on the judge’s views of the case. Sadly, due to the length of the
period of the case and the uncertainty of its outcome, the wife may abandon the
case and return back to her husband, not because she desires to, but because
she realizes the difficulties and complexity of getting a divorce
judgment.

Some women who are advised about the complications of the divorce cases, may
file Kuhla (compensatory divorce) lawsuits against their husbands, where they
have to pay them back the dowries, which their husbands have been paid to them,
in order to obtain Kuhla. Women, who have been abused or badly treated by their
husbands, could be very frustrated and offended to file Kuhla cases against
their husbands and pay them back the dowries, as they feel that they are
rewording them for their abuses and aggressions.

It should be noted that Kuhla cases may also take a long time before courts,
but usually less than divorce cases. Not to mention that wives might face the
same problems of the divorce cases with their husbands, such as not attending
the court hearings to delay the proceeding of the cases as well as referring
the cases by the judges to the Reconciling Committee as an attempt to reconcile
the differences between the couples.

However, if the woman obtains a divorce or Kuhla judgment and she seeks the
custody of her children, her second step of the long journey begins as she has
to file a custody case, which may also take a very long time. The judge may or
may not grant her a custody judgment, depending upon the circumstances of the
case and the age of the children. Also, if the woman wants her ex-husband to
pay alimony, she has to file another case, which will be a third step of her
long journey. To file any or all of these cases, the woman may spend years of
her life at court, hoping to obtain judgment(s) in her favor.

Not to mention the agony of visiting the court and the long waiting before
the court’s rooms to attend the hearings. She might be deprived of the right to
see her children by her manipulative husband or he could make it difficult for
her to see them just to punish her for issuing proceedings against him. The
life of the woman during the long period of disputes could turn upside down,
especially when she has a maneuvering husband or ex-husband.

We think that expediting the proceedings as well as putting a timeframe to
issue judgments for these cases is essential. Moreover, judges should be very
firm with husbands or ex-husbands, who try to maneuver by delaying the
proceedings of the cases, such as not attending them, and punish them to cease
their manipulation of the case and to respect the court.

Also, to ensure proper counseling, the judge could refer the married couples
to an independent court approved marriage counseling specialist, who might be
more suitable to reconcile their differences than the Reconciling Committee.
The period of the counseling should be specified by the judge so it would not
take a long time and used as delaying tool by husbands. If the counseling does
not succeed, the judge should issue a divorce judgment, particularly when it is
clear that the troubles are caused by the husband. Moreover, courts should
review the divorce, custody and alimony cases in one case and not in separate
three cases, so that women are not unnecessarily delayed in obtaining three
judgments.

We hope that after implementing the new Judiciary Law, which was issued by
the Royal Decree No. (M/78) dated Oct. 1, 2007, and forming the Personal Status
Courts, among other courts, the above mentioned problems are tackled to protect
the rights of women and ease their lives, as they are more often the suffering
party.