Manama: The gruesome murder by torture of an eight-year-old girl this week by her stepmother has sparked widespread outrage in Saudi Arabia.
Roua, forced to live with her father and stepmother following a stormy divorce case, was killed in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The father reportedly refused to allow Roua, her brother Ahmad, 11, and three sisters to live with their mother despite a court order that granted their custody to her, local news site Sabq reported on Tuesday.
“Our stepmother made us suffer tremendously,” Ahmad said from his hospital bed where he was recovering from the torture session he suffered alongside his sister.
“She often deprived us of food. One evening, Roua and I took two small biscuits. The next day, after she knew that we took the biscuits, she came to see us and hit us with an electric wire. She then asked us to move to the courtyard and to walk under the sun. Roua became too exhausted to continue and started crying. Our stepmother made us enter the house, but asked us to stand on one foot. She later hit us with a broomstick and my sister lost consciousness,” he said.
Roua’s mother, who was at the hospital to visit Ahmad, said that she wanted strong action against the stepmother for killing her daughter.
“If I had known she would kill my daughter over one biscuit, I would have given her everything she wanted,” she said. “What is the fault of the young children to make them suffer? I demand appropriate action by the authorities against her for killing my young daughter,” she said, quoted by the news site.
The mother said that she had not been told about Roua’s death until after she was buried.
In her account, Roua’s sister, Raba, said that the death occurred after her two siblings took biscuits.
“Our stepmother struck them with a broomstick and made them walk barefoot under the scorching sun,” Raba, 12, said. “She then made them re-enter the room and stand on one foot, but Roua could not stand it and she collapsed on the floor. However, our stepmother held her by the hair and smashed her body against the wall. My sister fell on the floor, but my stepmother screamed that Roua was feigning the pain. She kept shouting at my sister who was whispering. She then asked me for a glass of water to wash the face of my sister who was breathing heavily. I wanted to get more water, but my stepmother asked me to leave my sister alone,” she said.
Raba added that when her father arrived, she informed him about Roua’s condition and he promptly took her to hospital.
“Our grandfather then came over and he took us to his home,” she said. “It was terrible. Our stepmother was the only one who hit us, and we never told our father because of her threats. Now after what happened, we would like justice to be done,” she added.
Sources said that the stepmother, in her 40s, has been arrested and is being interrogated over the child’s death.
Roua’s murder is likely to bring the spotlight once more on the domestic abuse of children by parents or stepparents in Saudi Arabia.
