GULF DAILY NEWS (Bahrain): A new call for a Family Law has gone out following allegations that Bahraini husbands are allegedly extorting money from wives who file for divorce, who don't even have the money to feed their families.
The GDN has spoken to several women who claim to have been driven to poverty by the current justice system, which allows family disputes such as divorce and child custody cases to be settled by Sharia courts.
None of them can be named because their grounds for seeking a divorce are often driven by criminal actions of their husbands, who cannot be identified in print.
One Bahraini woman claimed she asked for a divorce last June after her husband raided her savings to pay dowry to a second wife.
However, she says he is demanding BD6,000 to agree to her request - even though she is struggling to make ends meet and has resorted to working as an illegal taxi driver to feed their six children.
She said the family didn't even have beds to sleep on or a washing machine, but received no support from her husband.
"I work on my own and pay for necessities by driving people in my car and charging up to BD2," the 35-year-old, from Hamad Town, told the GDN.
"My husband on the other hand does not care about me or the children - even though he sees the state we are living in." >>> By Rasha Al Qahtani | Sunday, January 25, 2009
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