@ xana... παρεμπιπτόντως μιλάμε για τη Σ. Αραβία, ε;Men have a unilateral right to divorce their wives (talaq) *without needing any legal justification*. The divorce is effective immediately. A woman can *only* obtain a divorce with the *consent* of her husband or *judicially* if her husband has harmed her. In practice, it is very difficult for a Saudi woman to obtain a judicial divorce. (Women's right to divorce is often extremely limited compared with that of men in the Middle East. While men can divorce their spouses easily, women often face legal and financial obstacles. For example, in many cases the woman must repay her dowry and marriage expenses. SHE MAY ALSO BE REQUIRED TO FORFEIT CHILD CUSTODY). In the event of divorce, fathers have automatic custody of sons from the age of 7 and daughters from the age of 9. The right for men to marry up to four wives, combined with their ability to divorce a wife at anytime without cause, can translate to unlimited polygamy............................................Normally, under Shari'a law, a mother can maintain custody of her male children until the age of nine, and female children until the age of seven. In practice the courts favor keeping children within a strict Islamic environment. Shari'a court judges have broad discretion in custody cases and often make exceptions to these general guidelines.Even when a mother who is residing in Saudi Arabia is granted physical custody of children, the father maintains legal custody and has the right to determine where the children live and travel. In many cases, the father has been able to assume legal custody of children against the wishes of the mother when she is unable or unwilling to meet certain conditions set by law for her to maintain her custodial rights. For example, if the mother moves to another country, the father is entitled to have custody. A court can sever a mother's custody if it determines that the mother is incapable of safeguarding the child or of bringing the child up in accordance with the appropriate religious standards. The mother can lose custody by re-marrying a non-Muslim, or by residing in a home with non-relatives. Shari'a law allows custody of children to be awarded to the closest male relative of a Saudi father in the case of death or imprisonment of the father, even if the Saudi father has made clear his wish that the children's mother have full custody According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World:In [shari'ah] law custody of children goes first to the mother, but only during early childhood; custody then reverts to the father, since as a man he is deemed better qualified to oversee the child's education. Schools of law vary on the exact age at which a mother's right to custody of her children terminates in favor of the father, but the age range in Sunn practice is seven to ten for a boy and nine to the onset of puberty or time of marriage for girls. [Shafi'I] law grants children the right to choose the custodial parent at age seven. In Twelver [Shi'i] law the father gains custody of a boy at age two and of a girl at age seven. In all schools of law, if the mother remarries at any time while her children are in her care, she jeopardizes her right to retain custody (1995)............................................Και κάποια επιπρόσθετα στοιχεία για την συγκεκριμένη υπόθεση:http://saudiwoman.me/2013/01/31/rest-in-peace-lama/και γενικώς για δικαιώματα γυναικών εκεί:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia