16 Saudi-Ethiopian marriages last year

A source at the Ministry of Justice announced that 16 marriages between Saudis and Ethiopians were approved last year. Of these, 14 marriages were between Saudi men and Ethiopian women, while two were between Saudi women and Ethiopian men.

The undersecretary of the Eastern Province explained that men who want to marry foreigners have to file requests in the province they live in.
Faisal Al-Othman said Saudi men seeking to marry foreign women must not be older than 70 or younger than 35.

If the man is already married to a Saudi, he must prove that his first wife is suffering from a terminal illness, deformity or sterility, Al-Othman said, while warning that failure to document marriages will entail an investigation by the Ministry of Interior, which may approve the marriage or invalidate it and punish the parties involved.

Meanwhile, the women’s branch of the North Riyadh Daawa (Islamic propagation) office held an event for Ethiopian domestic helpers about the sanctity of life and the religious consequences of assault and murder, Alsharq newspaper reported.

The effort came following a series of violent crimes allegedly committed by Ethiopian domestic helpers. The crimes have seen domestic worker recruitment from Ethiopia suspended.

Scholars Mohamed Hassan and Abulmannan Adam spoke at the event in Amharic and Oromo, two of Ethiopia’s most widely spoken languages. One of the non-Muslim attendees decided to convert to Islam at the end of the event.

The manager of the women’s branch of the office, Mona Al-Khaldi, said the event included talks about Islam, employer and employee rights in Islam and the historical relationship between Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.