By Adnan Al-Shabrawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Cases of adl (male guardians refusing to let females under their custody marry), have reached an annual average of 750 in the past three years, according to a statistical report by the Justice Ministry.

The ministry said Makkah has 29 percent of the adl cases, Riyadh 24 percent and the Eastern Province 22 percent followed by the Northern Border Province, Al-Jouf, Najran and Al-Baha.

The ministry has directed the courts that the adl cases should not take more than two sessions to settle.

A Saudi girl, who did not want to be identified, said she is 37 years old now but still unmarried because her father did not want her to marry though a number of young men had proposed to her.

She said her father was looking for lame excuses to prevent her from tying the knot with any of the numerous young suitors.

"My father refused one gentleman because his monthly salary was SR7,000, another because he was living in a far away town, a third because he did not have a university degree and a fourth because he was a divorcee," she said.

The woman said she asked a lawyer to file an adl case against her father to cancel his guardianship so that she could marry and have a family.

"I wish so much I could marry and live a normal life with my husband," she said.

A second Saudi girl who won an adl case against her father hoped that he would not consider this a sort of disobedience against him and that he would understand her need to have a husband.

She said she is 35 years old now and had 10 proposers during the past five years but they were all refused by her father.

"My father would once say I deserve a better husband than this one and on a second time he would claim that the proposer was only after my salary," she said.

She said all this time she was extremely obedient to her father and was giving him all her salary.

The woman said she was convinced that her father did not want her to get married so as to take advantage of her salary at the beginning of every month.

"I sought the help of a lawyer who presented to the court a number of witnesses who proved beyond any doubt that the man who proposed to me was suitable so the Family Affairs Court in Jeddah transferred the guardianship on me from my father to the court," she said.

She said the ruling was approved by the Court of Appeals.

The court also approved the request of a Saudi woman divorcee to be returned to her husband who divorced her about three years ago.

The Family Affairs Court in Makkah also returned a woman divorcee to her husband from whom she had three children.

The court confirmed her father's adl against her before returning her to her husband.

A number of Saudi female lawyers denounced the adl and said male guardians had no right to prevent women under their guardianship from marrying.

Nasreen Ali Al-Ghamdi, a woman lawyer, said male guardians should not prevent women under their custody from getting married for illogical reasons.

She said tribal non-compatibility should not be a reason for the adl.