Son kills dad for resisting teen daughter's marriage

A greedy Saudi man waited for his 85-year-old father to go to bed then used a big date palm branch to club him to death after he was infuriated by his father’s opposition to the marriage of his teenage daughter to an old man.

Showan, 50, had already been slammed by local newspapers when he forced his 14-year-old daughter, Nura, to marry an 80-year-old man in November in return for a dowry of SR17,000 ($4,600) paid by the bridegroom.

His father, Mohammed Ateen, told newspapers in November that he had strongly opposed the marriage of his granddaughter and would try to get her divorced.

Despite her father’s objection, his efforts succeeded after an unknown man paid the dowry money back to her old husband in return for a divorce.

“Although Showan used that dowry money to buy a car, he was so greedy that he started again this year to think of selling his daughter to another old man who can pay more money,” Okaz Arabic language daily said on Sunday.

“When he found another 80-year-old man who is willing to pay and marry his 14-year-old daughter, his father rebuked him and told him that Nura will never marry an old man as long as he lives…so Showan decided to get rid of his father.”

Showan, a resident of a tiny village near the southern town of Sabya, waited for his father to go to bed and followed him into his room. When the old man turned the light off and slept, Showan clubbed him with a large palm tree branch on the head, Okaz said, adding that Ateen died before arrival in hospital.

The paper described Showan as a greedy man and said Ateen “paid his life in defence of his minor grand daughter to prevent her marriage to an old man.”

“I had thought my problem was over when a benevolent man paid my dowry pack to the first husband….but evil motives came to my father again when he decided to force me to marry another old man for more money,” Nura told the paper.

“My grand father again stood against him and I could hear them shouting and arguing many times…I had felt secure and safe in the presence of my grand father but now that he is gone, I don’t know who will protect me and my family.”

Nura said she had been left with her ageing blind grand mother, three younger brothers and one little sister. Her mother had been divorced by her father and lives in a distant area with her new husband and children.

Okaz, one of the largest newspapers in the Gulf, had spearheaded the drive to get Nura divorced from her ageing husband in November.

The Saudi husband, Ahmed Rahim, immediately divorced Nura after receiving a cheque of SR17,000 from the unknown man during a meeting that brought together the husband and her father and grand father.

Rahim married the Nura in early November with her father’s consent and refused to divorce her unless she pays him back his dowry, the money offered by a bridegroom to the bride under Islamic law.

Just after the marriage, the paper quoted Ateen as saying his grand daughter had been through “a real ordeal and very sad days because of her marriage to a man who is her grandfather’s age".

“Besides the SR17,000, the dowry also included 100 heads of sheep. But I remained adamant and opposed this marriage,” Ateen had said.

Okaz quoted Rahim as saying after divorce he had not cheated the girl on the grounds he had come to her house and asked her father to marry her. “I don’t see my age a problem to this marriage. I found that this girl is the right wife for me but this did not happen because of the circumstances."

Nura’s marriage in November came amidst furor in the Gulf kingdom over widespread teenage marriage and calls for enacting laws to curb such practices.

“Because of his greediness, Showan lost his father, his daughter and all his children….he could lose his life as well,” Okaz said.

“Showan used a thick palm tree stick to hit his father on the head, leading to his death…he is in jail and will be tried according to Sharia (Islamic) law,” the paper quoted police spokesman captain Abdul Rahman Al Zahrani as saying.

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