Many local and expat women married to Bahrainis suffer because the justice system is confusing, longwinded and doesn’t guide them through the process, they say.
Bahrain Women’s Union (BWU) president Mariam Al Ruwaie said they had come across many women who suffered emotionally and financially because court cases dragged on and they had no support.
She said the union offered support to women in these situations but more help was needed from the justice system itself.
"We have a legal centre to give help to women and to deal with family and custody problems," she told the GDN.
"We advise women to contact us and we will give her an appointment with our lawyer."
One of the expat women seeking help from the union says she has been fighting for maintenance for herself and five dependents for the past year and still hasn’t received even one fils.
The mother of seven, who doesn’t want to be named, said her Bahraini husband left the house allegedly for another woman more than four years ago but she sought legal help only a year ago after her savings ran out.
She and her five dependents, aged 20, 19, 18, 14 and 10, are now surviving on loans and handouts from her husband’s family and her two grown up children.
"I have won custody of the children and was awarded urgent maintenance of BD300 in February, but I have not seen anything, he was also supposed to provide the children’s clothes for Eid and give them BD250 for school supplies," she said.
"I have been to the Execution Court several times, the people there are very helpful, but nevertheless, after giving letters to immigration, HSBC Bank, Central Bank of Bahrain twice, I still have not received any money.
"I have another case for back payments of maintenance for the last four and a half years."
She said her two children, aged 10 and 14, need to start school next month but she doesn’t have any money for their fees.
They are unable to attend government schools because their Arabic isn’t fluent enough, having always attended private schools.
"It is shocking that he is an educated person and he doesn’t want to educate his own children," she said.
"It’s urgent for them to start school, but up to this point I can’t enrol them anyway because I have no assurance of payment.
"Under Islam he should support his children and me because he is still legally married to me."
Her eldest child, aged 20, is in the second year of university but is unable to finish and her 19 and 18-year-olds can’t start university because her husband will not support them, even though he previously sent his eldest two children to study in the UK.
"We are trying to find them jobs but they only have high school certification, my other daughter has done two years at university but I can’t continue to pay," she said.
"My eldest two children are married with children of their own but they are helping to buy food for us and my son pays for the rental on my daughter’s car."
The American woman, who has been married for 30 years, claims her husband is wealthy and owns property in Bahrain and Oman but has cleared out his savings from his Bahrain bank accounts so the court can’t ask him for maintenance and he has put his business in the name of his mistress.
"Even though there is a Family Law and I have the same rights as a Bahraini woman, still I am suffering," she said.
"It is part of Islam to be just and there are clear guidelines on maintenance and they must be followed.
"It’s not nice to keep asking for help and charity, especially when he has the means," she added.
She claims that the most her husband did for the family in the past four-and-a-half years was to send food to the house prior to last year’s court case.
Her husband also allegedly pressurised the restaurant to sign a letter saying it was providing food to the house for months, even though it was only weeks.
"He was trying to show the courts that he was providing for his family by sending food to the house, but it was all done for show," she added.
The mother of seven said her husband had left unexpectedly and refused to communicate with them and it had been devastating for the whole family.
She said the children had even received counselling at the Batelco Care Centre for Family Violence Cases to help them cope when their father allegedly chose not to return their calls or answer their text messages.
Her husband’s family were also shocked by the way their son was treating his wife and children and were doing what they could to support them, she added.
"Emotionally the children suffer and during Ramadan he doesn’t even buy food for his children or give them money," she said.
"He doesn’t support them in any way and there is wilful behaviour not to support his family.
"From the beginning it’s devastating when someone disappear from the house, doesn’t answer phone calls and we don’t know where he is.
"It wasn’t expected there were no signs of something strange, except he would take clothes from the laundry and they didn’t come back, after I realised that he had slowly taken the clothes he used and left the others.
"It came out of the blue, I have been married for a very long time and we had planned our future together in our old age."
She said although her children had dual nationality, moving to the US was not an option as Bahrain was their home.
However, because she wasn’t a citizen she had to rely on her husband to renew her visa and he had allegedly made it difficult for her in the past and this was a concern for the future, she said.
"He never let me become a citizen, so every two years I have to renew my residency. Last year he refused to do this and his brother and nephew were able to help me get the residency," she said.
"He refused to renew the children’s passports until the US Embassy called him and in the end he came."
She claimed the only positive sign the family had seen from her husband was he had started to answer his children’s phone calls and had met up with some of them.
However, she thought this was probably because he wanted to show the courts that he was having a relationship with them. "It’s beyond belief, I feel pity and sorry for him, they are his children and I hope he will have a relationship with them," she added.
