Wife seeks divorce from husband who attacked her with an axe

Manama : An Arab woman, who was brutally attacked and thrown off from the third floor of their residence in Bilad Al Qadeem by her husband, has filed for divorce. 

Her attorney, Fatima BinRajab, confirmed to DT News during a telephonic conversation yesterday that the verdict on the divorce petition will be announced on April 22. 

BinRajab also confirmed that the woman’s husband, a Bahraini by nationality, is now serving a seven-year jail term as per a verdict issued on February 20 this year.

“We appealed against this seeking tougher punishment and the case is now before the Higher Court of Appeal that will announce its verdict on April 24,” BinRajab said.  

The lawyer also told DT News that the Fourth Lower Sharia Court (Jaffari Department) issued a verdict on March 28 granting the mother the custody of her two children, 10 and 12-year old sons, and allowed her to stay in the Kingdom to look after them.

BinRajab said that the Arab woman won the custody case seven months after filing it. The court also ordered the husband to hand over all legal documents of the children to their mother, including their passports, birth certificates and identity cards. 

The lawyer explained that the couple got married in 2003 and had frequent disagreements and legal disputes throughout their 14 years of marriage.

Court files say that the woman won a case against her husband last year, obliging him to pay her a monthly allowance of BD300, as she’s unemployed.

According to the woman, her husband was furious about the court decision and repeatedly abused her and threatened to deprive her of her children. This apparently continued until last May when the man attempted to murder her at their home.

Explaining the incidents, BinRajab told DT News, “The man ensured that the house was empty on the day of the attack.”

“He threatened to kill her using an axe, and when she tried to escape, he stabbed her once in the back and again on the head. 

“But he didn’t stop there and threw her from the balcony of their apartment on the third floor of the building. 

“As he was determined to kill her, the man also burnt her face with acid,” BinRajad said. 

When asked about the woman’s fate once the children grow older and after she’s no more their legal custodian, BinRajab clarified, “The law in Bahrain allows the children to choose their custodian once they are 15-years-old. The court granted the woman legal residency until then.”

She also assured that the woman is slowly recovering from the injuries and fractures she suffered as a result of the brutal attack, adding: “The victim underwent two surgeries and one more plastic surgery in the face is required to cover some scars”.

According to the latest statistics by the Legal Advisory and Research Directorate in the Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission, 859 domestic violence cases were reported in the first half of 2016, which is a 50 percent increase when compared to that of the prior year. 

The cases included 473 medium to severe assaults of husbands on their wives, while 185 were of wives attacking their husbands. The remaining cases varied between assaults on daughters, sons, fathers and mothers. DT News reported three incidents of husbands beating wives in September and October last year.