JEDDAH: A court in Jeddah is to look into the marriage of a Saudi couple following concerns raised by the wife’s half brothers about differences in their tribal backgrounds.

The 37-year-old husband, who asked his name not be published, told Arab News that his 33-year-old wife’s half-brothers filed the case after she refused to hand them the power of attorney over real estate that she inherited.

The man said his wife refused to succumb to their demands and insisted on him managing her property. He added that his wife’s half-brothers attacked her and made death threats to him.

A number of similar stories made headlines in the local media recently. Fatima, a mother of two who was forcibly divorced from her husband, Mansour Al-Timani, by a court in Al-Jouf after her half brothers alleged that the man had lied about his tribal backgrounds.

The couple’s ordeal started in 2005 when Fatima’s half-brothers asked a court to annul the marriage citing her husband’s low tribal background. The judge agreed, even though the couple had been married for over two years and had two children.

Fatima and her children spent nine months in a women’s prison in Dammam after refusing to go back to her family.

In January 2007, Riyadh’s Appeals Court upheld the Al-Jouf judge’s decision to divorce the couple, and Fatima was moved to a women’s shelter where she has been living ever since with her son, Suliman. Her other child, Noha, lives with Al-Timani.

Another case was that of Samira, 29, and Abdullah Ali, 30. The couple had been married for two and a half years and had a four-month-old daughter before they were divorced in absentia by a judge in Qatif.