Canada Will Not Repatriate Woman in Saudi Arabia
Nathalie Morin (right), with husband Al Bishi and eldest son Samir.
The Canadian government has decided not to repatriate a Quebec woman living in Saudi Arabia who claims her husband is not allowing her to leave the country. Nathalie Morin, who married a Saudi Arabian man over eight years ago, is subject to the Saudi law that women and their children cannot leave the country without the permission of their husbands. Morin has three children and claims to have been trying to come to Canada for almost three years – but her husband refuses to allow her the necessary permission.
Nathalie Morin met her Saudi husband, Samir Said Ramthi Al Bishi, in Montreal at the age of seventeen. They later moved to Saudi Arabia after the birth of their first son. Morin’s mother claims her daughter’s marriage and family life was strong until they left Canada. It is claimed that Al Bishi is regularly physically abusive and that his refusal to let Moran and her children come to Canada is not out of love but out of spite. Although an amendment to the Saudi law allows foreign wives to leave without their husbands’ permission, it does not apply to Morin as she was married before the law was changed. Desperate to have her daughter home, Morin’s mother Johanne Durocher has been pleading that the Canadian government repatriate her daughter. Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon met with Saudi officials on the weekend to discuss the situation and announced afterward that the matter was to be privately dealt with by the family. Durocher says Cannon’s press secretary, Natalie Sarafian, sent her an e-mail explaining that Morin’s husband would allow Morin to come home – if the government paid him a sum of $300,000. Durocher claims this exorbitant request was passed onto her. “You don’t buy your children” says Durocher.
I understand that interfering in other country’s laws can be delicate, but I am shocked that the Canadian government would allow the perpetuation of female oppression in Saudi Arabia upon a Canadian – who claims to have been physically abused by her husband-cum-captor.
The fact that Saudi women need permission at all to leave the country is troublesome and misogynistic and while the law has been amended to graciously allow foreign born wives to leave, the Canadian government does nothing to help Morin benefit from the amendment. Whether or not it can be proved that Morin is physically abused – her husband adamantly denies it – there is obviously an element of mental abuse at disallowing her to return to her home country. It is the responsibility of the government to encourage all human rights, particularly the rights of their own citizens whether they are at home or living abroad, especially considering 2.8 million Canadians currently live abroad. The current Federal government has a reputation for impartiality towards women’s rights and only continues to fuel this notion by choosing not to help Nathalie Morin. This is not a case of respecting another country’s laws, there should be no respect shown for the subjugation of women anywhere. Morin and her children are not prisoners of war with whom a captor should be negotiating a ransom, they are innocent victims of an abusive husband and father who exerts his ridiculous right to keep them at home for no real reason but money. If this is not reason enough to repatriate her, I shudder to imagine what is enough to garner the concern of our federal government.
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Tags: nathalie morin, saudi arabia, womens rights
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