Saudi TV host speaks out on abuse after attack

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A popular Saudi television host publicly showed her bruised and bloodied face and has shocked her compatriots into openly talking about one of the kingdom's long-hidden problems: violence against women.

Rania al-Baz has been hailed as a hero for letting newspaper photographers snap pictures of her face and for frankly discussing her case after she said a beating by her husband earlier this month left her unconscious.

Her story has been widely reported in the Saudi media. A Saudi princess stepped forward to pay al-Baz's medical bills. Representatives of the new Saudi National Human Rights Association visited her in the hospital.

Al-Baz told the Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that once she is back at work, she will press a violence-against-women awareness campaign.

"I know many women in Saudi Arabia are badly beaten, and when I recover I will do a program addressing that," she said.

She said she also will try to tackle other topics, such as rape, that are usually not publicly discussed in conservative Saudi Arabia.

Al-Baz is well known throughout the kingdom for her chatty, magazine style show, The Kingdom This Morning. The program usually offers lighter fare and is shown on state-run Saudi Channel One.

Al-Baz's television persona - warm smile wrapped in a stylish headscarf - made the photographs of her wrecked face after the April 10 beating all the more startling. Al-Baz suffered 13 facial fractures and required 12 operations.

"Though the photo was too gory for some people - blood was dripping from her face - she wanted her case to be publicized so that other battered women would be encouraged to speak up," columnist Raid Qusti wrote in the Arab News.

Qusti said that all Saudi women should salute al-Baz.

"She knew the story was going public, and she did not do that for publicity, she did it to help other women - because no man has the right to beat a woman," said Arab News' editor, Khaled al-Maeena.

Al-Baz, in her 30s, said her husband of six years, singer Mohammed Bakr al-Fallatta, had beaten her before. But she said that the April 10 attack was especially vicious and that she thought he wanted to kill her.

After banging her head on the floor and the wall until she lost consciousness, her husband drove her to the hospital, al-Baz said, and left her at the front doors, claiming that she was a victim of a traffic accident and that he was going to pick up others who had been hurt.

He then drove off and has not been seen or heard from since.

Al-Baz said she is not sure what triggered the attack. But al-Fallatta had been out of work for nearly three years and was depressed, she said. And days before the beating, he got angry when he found her watching a Lebanese TV show that featured his sister, a singer who lives in Beirut.

Police say that when they find al-Fallatta, he will likely face charges of abuse and attempted murder.

Although Islam prohibits violence against women, many believe spousal abuse is common in almost entirely Muslim Saudi Arabia.

World and national headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright