Jeddah: A Medina court has rejected for the second time a Saudi doctor's suit to be allowed to marry a colleague against the wishes of her father and brother, a Saudi newspaper reported.
The court refused on Sunday to reverse its July decision against the 42-year-old woman despite an appeals court having sent the verdict back for reconsideration, Al-Watan newspaper reported.
The woman originally sought the help of the lower court to marry a doctor in the hospital where she worked, saying her father and brothers had refused to allow the union because the man is from a tribe other than their own.
But the judge in the case again denied her petition. In his original judgment he accused her of being disobedient to her father.
Under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic Sharia law and its deeply conservative tribal traditions, men have absolute control over their daughters until they marry.
The judge in the case also ordered that the woman return to live at her father's house.
She has been living in a protective women's institute for two years, and says she faces abuse from her father if she goes back to his home.
"I have been prevented from marrying for 10 years now, and my case has been in the Medina court for five years," the woman told Al-Watan.
"I will turn 43 in a few months. I don't have many years left to build a family and have children."
Her lawyer, Ahmad Al Sudairy, said the judge had blinded himself to the woman's plight and wishes while he cited passages from Koranic texts to back his own judgment, the newspaper said.
