Saudi Reforms

Abuse and isolation in Saudi “nursing homes”

Flogging, abuse, forced religion and no contact with the outside world.

This is what girls and women in Saudi Arabia testify about after being placed in so-called “nursing homes” after being ostracized by their families or husbands for disobedience, reports The Guardian.

Saudi Arabia tries to market itself as reformed, but women who publicly demand more rights face house arrest, imprisonment and exile.

The “nursing homes” are more like a “prison” for women who have not listened to their parents or husbands, had sexual relations outside of marriage or left home.

The women can spend years locked up and cannot leave until they receive permission from a male guardian.

Activist: You stay until you accept the rules

A young Saudi woman describes trying to take her own life when she was being taken to a so-called “nursing home” for girls and women who have been ostracized by their families or husbands.

“I knew what happened to the women there and thought, ‘I can’t survive it.’”

Maryam Aldossari, a Saudi activist based in London, tells the newspaper that the woman or girl is allowed to “stay in there as long as it takes for her to accept the rules.”

Yahia, 38, who lives in exile, says that women are often faced with the dilemma of staying in an abusive home or being sent to the nursing home.

“If you are sexually abused or get pregnant by your brother or father, you are the one sent to the Dar al-Reaya (nursing home) to protect the family’s reputation,” she says.

Saudi officials have described it as offering “protection for girls accused or convicted of various crimes” and say it is used to “rehabilitate women” with the help of psychiatrists “to return them to their families”.