Bethany Vierra and her daughter in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Women’s Skills Bureau, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

WENATCHEE – A Wenatchee woman has won an important court decision to prevent her daughter from being returned to the child’s father in Saudi Arabia.

Bethany Vierra Al-Haidari was fighting for custody in Saudi courts when she divorced her Saudi husband. She left Saudi Arabia with her daughter in 2019 while her ex-husband was suing custody of the child.

Back in Wenatchee, Al-Haidari called on the Chelan County Supreme Court to overturn judgments from the Saudi courts that were unanimously in her husband’s favor. Saudi law makes almost all women’s freedoms dependent on the will of their husbands or closest male relatives.

Al-Haidari’s attorney, Scott Volyn, told the court that after she left Saudi Arabia with her daughter, she would be imprisoned or even executed if she returned. Al-Haidari, who studied human rights as a doctoral candidate, argued against the Saudi system in Ferrera’s court.

In a February 9 ruling, Chelan County’s Supreme Court judge Kristin Ferrera said Saudi court rulings granting custody of the father are unenforceable in Washington because they deny the mother her basic human and parenting rights.

“The guardianship system of Saudi Arabia, which allows the father to make all important decisions based solely on his gender and could effectively eliminate the mother’s visitation rights, is tantamount to custody that violates the fundamental principles of human rights,” Ferrera said in her judgment.

“… As a woman, American citizen and non-Muslim, Bethany was not honored by due process and as a parent in Saudi Arabia,” she wrote, “therefore this court cannot uphold the custody decisions of the Saudi court.”

The child’s father challenged Ferrera’s decision and Al-Haidari’s allegations in her petition. The case remains open until the court can reach a custody agreement.