A Saudi Brutally Kills Wife One Week After Wedding

Saudis are terrified by the awful murder of Rawan Al-Ghamdi, the bride who was killed on the hands of her own husband several days after marriage.

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Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry shared on Snap chat that police have arrested the killer, who is accused of killing his wife by attacking her with rocks on her head until she passed away and then ran over her with his car in Taif city. 

A fight happened  between Rawan and her husband on their way to her family's house. He hit her and she went down from the car trying to escape and save her life, but he followed her and killed her.

According to one of the victim's relatives, He said the murderer called his mother after the incident and she agreed to cover her son’s murder by calling Rawan’s family and told them the newly weds have had an accident and that the girl died. However, the police investigated the accident and arrested the husband.

Media sources indicated that the killer attempted to escape from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain, but was stopped by the Saudi forces and taken to jail.

Viral hashtags circulated in Saudi Arabia’s social media platforms including “#القصاص_من_قاتل_روان; #دم_روان_الغامدي" which means “#punishment for Rawan’s murderer and Rawan Al-Ghamdi’s blood.”

Women rights activists and advocates called the Saudi authorities to impose the severe penalties possible against the murderer.

They also expressed their anger against the huge amount of girls being killed every year due to lack of measures taken against the killers calling for more strict measures despite the huge number of women being killed after being subjected to domestic violence.

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Human rights advocates have also shared other hashtags such as #Stop_Killing_Women, #who'snext and #Women's_funeral to express their anger at the horrific crime which shuddered families in Saudi Arabia.

In August 2013, the Saudi government agreed a law making domestic violence a criminal act for the first time. The imposed law imposes a punishment of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to 50,000 riyals ($13,000) as the maximum punishments which can be doubled for repeating offenders. Furthermore, it criminalizes psychological and sexual abuse, as well as physical abuse.