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Riyadh: A study on housemaids conducted by the Saudi Ministry of Social Welfare showed that they suffer more from physical violence than sexual harassment.
The study which the ministry compiled in a book entitled Family Violence pointed out that other sections of society, such as wives and children, only suffer from negligence and scolding.
The study blames husbands for being negligent of their wives and children and stressed the scarcity of sexual abuse crimes among children, women and the elderly.
Elaborating on this, Awad Al Radadi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Kingdom, said the team assigned by the ministry had conducted an extensive field study indicating that family violence in the Saudi society is very limited.
Al Radai said: "Had the media not highlighted the issue of the malpractice in the society, we would not have given it great attention because it is still very limited and insignificant in our society."
The study indicated that people only hear about cases of physical violence when they are reported to security authorities.
This shows that the victims of physical assault only approach the protection services at advanced stages.
It also said violence against housewives remained hidden unless they fled to their families' houses, highlighting that this revelation was made by women prisoners.
The study also warned against the consequences of ignoring the problem, on the grounds that the silence leads to its aggravation and complicates the task of the social institutions responsible for family protection.
The study urged the parties who deal with family violence cases to be more transparent in revealing such cases and to punish those who deal leniently with this kind of violation such as doctors, social workers and teachers.
The study recommended the importance of social awareness campaigns to show the parents ways ofcontrolling themselves when they deal with such cases. It also called upon academic and religious institutions to properly fulfil their obligations.
The study stressed the importance of founding family counselling services to help solve family problems in ways other than creating foster families to give refuge to girls suffering from family violence.
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