A Saudi court appeal court has backed the ruling of a lower court to force a couple to divorce against their will, the pairÂ’s lawyer said on Sunday.
Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahem said in a statement that the appeals court in Riyadh “has supported the divorce because of ‘inappropriate lineage’.” The family of the Saudi woman, Fatima, began legal action in 2005, saying that her husband was not of sufficiently prestigious tribal stock to marry her, adding that he had lied about his tribal background. Fatima and her two children were then imprisoned for refusing to return to her family’s custody after the lower court first annulled the marriage. But Lahem said that the ruling contradicted the principles of Sharia law, which objects to discrimination on the basis of colour, nationality and race. The issue was dramatised in a popular comedy show aired last October that ridiculed the idea of tribal superiority. |