Posts
Jeremy D. Morley
www.international-divorce.com
Even
if the American woman whose ex-husband is reportedly not letting her leave
Saudi Arabia escapes, she could be forced to leave her 4-year-old daughter
behind
Business Insider.
Article by Ashley Collman, 3-7-19
On
Tuesday, The New York Times published a report on Bethany
Vierra, a 31-year-old American woman whose
cousin said she has been trapped in Saudi Arabia with her 4-year-old daughter
since divorcing her Saudi husband.
In Saudi
Arabia, women are controlled by male "guardians" who must sign off
anytime they want to leave the country. Even though she is divorced, her
husband still has that power and has reportedly refused to let her return to
the US.
Even if
Vierra manages to find a way to get around this rule herself, her ex-husband
will maintain the power to keep his daughter, a legal expert told INSIDER.
The outlook is not looking good for the American woman whose
ex-husband is reportedly not letting her leave Saudi Arabia.
Legal experts told INSIDER that even if 31-year-old Bethan
Vierra escapes the country, she could have to leave her 4-year-old daughter
behind.
On
Tuesday, The New York Times
published Vierra's story, whose cousin said she has not been allowed to leave the
country with her 4-year-old daughter, Zaina, since divorcing her Saudi husband
a year ago. Vierra's cousin declined to comment to INSIDER.
Saudi
Arabia's guardianship laws assign a male relative control over every woman.
Though she is divorced, Vierra's husband is still her guardian, maintaining
control over her ability to travel internationally or get a job.
Her
cousin told The Times that Vierra tried to come back to Washington state to
spend Christmas with her family, but her ex wouldn't allow it.
Vierra's
case is somewhat unique in that she is a foreigner. Usually after a divorce, a
Saudi woman's guardianship passes back to her father, or to her closest living
male relative. It's possible that Vierra's ex remains her guardian because she
has no Saudi male relative for her guardianship to pass to.
Even
if Vierra were able to leave the country herself, either through permission
from her ex or through petitioning the local courts, there's little hope that
she'll ever be able to take her daughter with her because the girl's biological
father will remain her guardian until she marries, and the Saudis don't
recognize Zaina's dual citizenship.
Legal experts
say there's little hope her daughter could get another guardian
While
women can sometimes petition to get a new guardian, these situations are
usually narrowly tailored to women whose male guardian has grown too old for
the responsibility, according to Human Rights Watch.
In
the vast majority of cases, a girl's father is her guardian at birth and the
only time it transfers is when she marries, and even then her guardian must
sign off on her suitor, according to HRW. If her husband dies before her, the
woman's guardianship passes to another male relative.
Jeremy
Morley, founder of an
international family law practice in New York, told INSIDER it's highly
unlikely Vierra could get a new guardian for her daughter Zaina.
She would have to
show a "heavy burden of proof" that her ex is mentally ill, a
criminal, or not fulfilling his guardian responsibilities — and even then
Zaina's new guardian would just be another male member of her father's line,
Morley said.
Zaina's dual
citizenship won't help her, either. Though the girl was born in Saudi Arabia,
her mother's American citizenship passed to her at birth. But the Saudi
government doesn't recognize dual citizenship, so she'll get no special
treatment if her mother finds out a way to leave and tries to take her with
her, without the permission of the girl's father.
Furthermore,
custody of Zaina will transfer to her father when she turns 7, under Sharia
law, according to HRW.
Robert
D. Arenstein, a New York-based lawyer who has tried over 400 international
child custody cases, called the policy "very chauvinistic."
"Unless
she can get out of Saudi Arabia in some way, which is not necessarily going to
happen, I would tell her to try and stay with the child and get a lawyer that
does Sharia law to help her out," Arenstein told INSIDER.
Saudi Arabia has made
it somewhat easier
for women to petition for custody of their children in the last year, not
requiring them to file lawsuits and go through the court Saudi system like in
the past. But Vierra would still have to apply for custody of Zaina.
When
couples divorce in the US, state law determines
the process for who gets custody of the children. If it's
disputed, courts often decide based on the "best interests of the
child."
The US probably can't help, either
Morley said Vierra
can petition a court in her home state of Washington to take the custody case,
but even then there's "no chance whatsoever that the Saudi courts will pay
attention to an American ruling."
"She is in
desperate trouble," he said. "She can ask for political help. That is
all I can see beyond begging for mercy from her husband. Make promises to him
that she will treat him in a certain way, or give him something else that he
wants."
And if that fails,
"she can possibly find a very dangerous way to be smuggled out of the
country."
The
State Department declined to weigh in on Vierra's case to the Times, citing
privacy rules, but the department's deputy spokesman, Robert J. Palladino, did
address the issue generally at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Palladino
said that anytime an American travels overseas they're "subject to the
laws of the country in which they travel," including Saudi Arabia where
women require their guardian's permission to leave the country.
"We
routinely encourage American citizens to make sure — to read — what we publish and to
understand the laws of the countries to which they're visiting," Palladino
said.
He
added: "We engage with the Saudi government and all nations on [women and
girls rights'] issues. It's something that we do routinely in our diplomacy.
It's something that we continue to stand up for and something that is part of
what we as the diplomatic corps do globally."
