Man who gouged wife's eyes in detention, awaiting charge

AMMAN — Officials on Wednesday said that a husband who allegedly gouged his wife’s eyes in Jerash last week will remain detained until a final medical report is issued to determine the kind of charge that will be levelled against him. 

“We are still waiting for the medical reports to determine if the 31-year-old suspect should be charged with causing permanent disability or attempted murder,” a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The judicial source said that the general attorney’s office at the Criminal Court is following up closely on the incident.

The 25-year-old woman, a mother of three children, was reportedly left 100 per cent blind following a domestic dispute with her husband at their home on November 6.

"The husband gouged the victim's eyes and she was rushed to a nearby hospital, where attending doctors ruled that the woman had lost her vision entirely as a result of the assault," a source told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

The woman is still recovering at King Hussein Medical Centre, her lawyer, Eva Abu Halaweh, told The Jordan Times.

“The woman underwent several surgeries and is currently undergoing several therapy sessions,” Abu Halaweh, who is also the executive director for Mizan Law Group, said.

The lawyer added that the victim and her family are insisting on filing charges against her husband and asked to be reunited with her three children, two boys aged 11 and 9 and a 30-month-old daughter. 

“Her children are currently with her husband’s parents in Aqaba and officials from the Family Protection Department informed me that the children will be sent to their mother’s parents on Sunday,” Abu Halaweh said.

Sources told The Jordan Times recently that the victim and her husband had “constant marital problems” and that she had returned to her family's home for several days. 

On the day of the incident, the second source told The Jordan Times, the woman returned home, and shortly afterwards "her husband drew a knife and threatened to kill her and her children".

The source added that the husband allegedly jumped on his wife, “pinned her to the ground and gouged her eyes with the knife”. 

The husband then went to his neighbour and informed him of what he had done, while his wife crawled outside looking for help from other neighbours, the source added.  

The incident sent shockwaves across the Kingdom, with many Jordanians taking to social media for over a week to express their anger and disbelief, and calling for the suspect to be given a stiff punishment. 

Meanwhile, the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) and other women's groups called for a sit-in in front of the Prime Ministry this coming Saturday under the theme "Enough”.

The women’s movement also said that they plan to organise an electronic campaign a few days before the sit-in to raise awareness of gender-based violence and to encourage people to join the sit-in.

"We should stop voicing our objections via social media and instead we should take concrete action to say no to gender-based violence," the JNCW statement said.

The statement added:  "We call on every Jordanian who cares about our true societal values and basic human rights to join us to express their rejection of all forms of violence."

The Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) on Sunday issued a statement condemning the episode as an "ugly incident in Jerash that caused a wife to allegedly lose her sight by her husband".

"This is a monstrous crime against humanity that the Kingdom has not witnessed in a long time," the SIGI statement said.