Saudi woman shot dead 'for plan to marry Yemeni'

Saudi woman shot dead 'for plan to marry Yemeni'
Saudi man hunted by police after woman killed in Jeddah in what was believed to be a dispute over her wish to marry a Yemeni man.
2 min read
12 June, 2015
Saudis sit along the Jeddah Corniche [Al-Araby al-Jadeed]
A Saudi man is being hunted by police after shooting dead a woman in what is believed to be a dispute over her engagement to a Yemeni.

Sarah al-Sharif, 30, was shot five times at her workplace yesterday in Jeddah by a 22-year-old man. She was pronounced dead in hospital.

Local news reports said yesterday she was killed because of her engagement to a Yemeni national.

Sharif recently moved to Jeddah from her hometown of Mecca to stay in a government-run women's safe house after reporting abuse from her younger brother over her plans to marry a foreigner.

Her driver had recently filed a complaint with police that her brother had been following them.

Fahd Salim al-Maliki, a spokesman for police in the Mecca region, told al-Okaz an investigation had been launched. Police did not name the main suspect in the investigation.

The head of the ministry of social affairs in Mecca, Abdallah al-Tawi, said the woman had been undergoing psychological treatment and the ministry had given her employment and a driver due to her being followed.

In deeply religious and conservative Saudi society, women must obtain government consent to marry non-Saudis and marrying non-Gulf Arabs and non-Arab carries severe social stigma.

However marriages to foreigners are on the rise among Saudi women, who are turning to expats for stability, security, more social freedom and because of higher chances the marriage will not end in divorce or polygamy.

A study last year showed Saudi women married to non-Saudi men had a 90 percent success rate in their marriages.

Yemeni men are the most popular among non-Gulf suitors, according to a 2012 study.

In 2013, a 22-year-old Saudi woman eloped to Yemen with her Yemeni boyfriend after her parents denied his marriage requests based on his nationality.