Saudi Judge Denies Custody of 4-Year-Old Daughter To U.S. Woman For Being Too “Western”

A Saudi judge has ruled against a U.S. woman who was seeking custody of her girl because she was exposing the girl to “western values.”

Here’s more about what happened:

Though she succeeded with the divorce, her custody battle appeared to reach a dead end on Sunday, when a Saudi judge awarded custody of Zeina to her father’s mother, who lives with him, despite video evidence Ms Vierra submitted to the court that she said showed her ex-husband doing drugs and verbally abusing her in front of their daughter.

“It’s like 10,000 times worse here because so much is at risk for women when they go to court,” Ms Vierra said, near tears, in an interview on Sunday. “I genuinely thought that there would still be justice served here, and I kind of put everything on that.”