The Arab News is nicknamed the "Green Truth" - "green" because the outer sheet is printed on green paper. The "truth" bit is sarcasm; it refers to the censorship imposed on the media by the Saudi government. Of late, however, I believe that I've noticed a slight relaxation in this censorship and a willingness by Arab News to print articles that are slightly critical of at least the Saudi way of life, if not the government.
Let's leave this sidetrack and move on to the main issue of this post. Two days ago, Arab News published the following short article on it's back page:-
Man Gets Bride by 'Curing' Diabetes
Arab News 24/9/06
JEDDAH - An elderly man in Renya was so ecstatic in his belief that another man had cured his diabetes with an herbal remedy that he offered the medicine man a gift: His daughter. Now the medicine man is off on a honeymoon, and for the time being isn't able to offer his patients a cure that all the science in the world has been unable to discover, but is allegedly locked a secret herbal recipe "discovered" by one man in Jeddah, the daily AI- Madinah reported yesterday. Great! So as soon as the man returns from his honeymoon, Ministry of Health officials should pay him a visit so that Saudi Arabia can give to the world a cure that has so far eluded the brainpower of the world's scientific community. (Either that, or the old man should go immediately to a hospital before he dies believing that his potentially fatal blood sugar condition has been cured.)
Despite the jocular tone taken by the reporter, there is a serious issue here - how did the daughter feel about being married off to this quack? How did she feel when her father came home and said "Wonderful news! This clever man has cured my diabetes amd I want you to marry him"? Did she think to herself "This man who has cured my father is so wonderful that I want to marry him" or was she perhaps forced by her father to marry him?
Back in April last year the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh issued a fatwa saying that forced marriages were un-islamic and that fathers who force daugthers into unwanted marriages should be imprisoned. A CBS report on this item said:-
The high number of forced marriages is believed to be the main reason behind the sharp increase in divorce. According to Saudi newspapers, about half of all marriages end in divorce.
Now anyone who has lived in the Middle East knows that appearance is much more important than the reality. Despite the fatwa issued last year, I strongly suspect that forced marriages are still a fact of life for many youbng women in Saudi Arabia, especially in small towns and villages away from the large cities.
abuTrevor
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