Saudi Arabia Launch Campaign Against Domestic Violence
Saudi Arabia has revealed its first anti-domestic violence campaign featuring a burqa-clad woman with a blackened and blood-shot eye and the slogan "Some things can't be covered"
The initiative, supported by the King Khalid Charitable Foundation, comes after the stunning case of Lamaa, a five-year-old girl that was tortured and beaten to death by her father Faihan al-Gameri, a man described as a prominent religious scholar in the Gulf Kingdom.
Lamaa died from an internal haemorrhage caused by a fracture to the skull. She also had other injuries resulting from her father beating her, including burns from a hot iron, broken arms and head bruises.
The King Khalid campaign aims at providing "legal protection for women and children from abuse in Saudi Arabia". "The phenomenon of battered women in Saudi Arabia is much greater than apparent," the foundation wrote in literature for its campaign.
Saudis are being encouraged by the campaign to report cases of violence at locations around the Kingdom including Madinah, Najran, Makkah and Riyadh, according to The Huffington Post.
According to al-Arabiya, one in every six women is abused verbally, physically or emotionally every day, and 90 percent of the abusers are usually husbands or fathers.
In 2012, Saudi Arabia introduced a system of SMS alerts to ensure married women in the kingdom cannot leave the country without their partners' consent.
Saudi law already bans women from driving any vehicle, and requires them to wear a veil covering their entire body.
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