Princess Sultana's Daughters

Reema.
    “It seems that Saleem had just returned from
a short trip to Bangkok and had smuggled in pornographic
videotapes. After a night of drinking and viewing the tapes, Saleem
wanted to have sex with his wife, although he had not displayed
affectionate interest in Reema for some time.
    “When Saleem awakened Reema in the middle of
the night for sex, he was told that she was having her monthly
period.”
    With half-shut eyes, Nura leaned back on the
sofa.
    Like all Muslims, I know that the Koran
forbids sexual relations during a woman’s menstrual cycle. The
Koran clearly states: “ They ask, concerning women’s courses,
respond: they are a hurt and a pollution, keep away from women in
their courses, and do not approach them until they are clean, but
when they have purified themselves, you may approach them in any
manner, time, or place, ordained for you, by God .”
    Had Reema fought her husband, only to be
raped and beaten during a time she was forbidden to him?
    I could tell that Nura was thinking of what
she was going to say and how she was going to say it. I watched
Nura’s face as it became white with anger. “Saleem, in a drunken
state, became angry at his wife’s condition and refusal.” My sister
took a deep, ragged breath. “Sultana, Reema was badly beaten, and
then Saleem raped his wife in a region of her body not allowed to
her husband. The physician at the private clinic informed Father
that Saleem’s attack was so violent and brutal that emergency
surgery was performed. For the remainder of her life, Reema will be
forced to wear a colostomy bag.”
    My mouth opened in a soundless howl. Reema?
Disabled and encumbered for life? I found myself seething with
hostility. Now I understood why Sara had fled the room, for she
herself had been subjected to that same type of sexual abuse when
wed against her will to her first husband, a man who was sick in
his head.
    I stood and stamped my foot so hard that a
vase tottered and threatened to fall from a tall stand. “If Saleem
were in this room, I would attack him with my hands,” I shouted. In
an uncontrolled rage, I asked, “And Saleem? Has he been
jailed?”
    Tahani made a clicking sound with her tongue.
“Jailed? He is Reema’s husband. He is free to do as he likes.”
    Nura’s face was becoming even paler in her
grief and bitterness over the fate of our innocent sister.
    I protested, “But his conduct was forbidden!
Surely, we can make a case for a religious investigation!”
    Nura looked at me with great love mingled
with sadness. “Sultana, you speak as a child. Who, in our land,
will take the side of a woman against her husband? Our own father
and brother have directed that this is a personal matter between
Reema and Saleem and that no one of our family is to
interfere.”
    Tahani confided, “Father prohibited us from
telling you, but we decided that we must, for when you see Reema
next, her condition will be obvious.”
    I insisted, “Reema must divorce him! That, at
least!”
    Nura reminded me of the reality of Reema’s
situation. “And lose her children? Both girls have reached puberty,
and the boys are now eight and nine. Saleem has the right to take
them from their mother. And that he would do. He has already
threatened her with their loss. Sultana, Reema would die without
her children.”
    When Nura saw that I was still fiercely
angry, she asked, “Tell me, Sultana, could you live if your
children were taken from you?”
    In my land, in the event of a divorce, the
mother has the right to retain her children if they are still
suckling. In most cases, a mother maintains custody of daughters
until a girl child arrives at puberty. In the case of male
children, the boy should be allowed to remain with his mother up
until age seven. When he reaches his seventh birthday, he is
supposed to have the option to choose between his mother or father.
Generally it is accepted that the father would have his sons at age
seven. A son must go with his father at the age of puberty,
regardless of the child’s wishes.
    Often, in the case of male children, fathers
will not allow the mother to retain custody, no matter the age of
the child. I have personally known women who have lost custody of
their children at young ages, never again seeing those to whom they
gave birth. Unfortunately, if a father seizes the initiative and
takes his children, there is no authority that will force him to
return them to their mother.
    I knew that if Saleem refused