Women fear losing custody of children if they file for divorce

Unhappily married women in the Kingdom have told Arab News that they do not want to file for divorce for fear of losing custody of their children. They said they would rather endure a bad marriage as in most child custody cases the father usually wins. Arab News spoke to a number of women who are in the dilemma of either filing for divorce or keeping their children. A recent Arab News report told the story of a mother of a three-year-old girl who said the father, to whom the court had given custody, did not allow her to see her daughter. She said the court ruling did not include visitation rights for her, so the father took their daughter out of Jeddah to live with his mother in Al-Baha. The woman said she had been unable to see her daughter or communicate with her over the telephone for more than a year. From Arab News .