Women Look To New Law for a Fair Shake

Cambodian women line up to vote at a polling station in a previous election, in Kampong Speu province. (Photo: AP)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
Wednesday, 05 May 2010

Bou Somaly, a 43-year-old mother of one, recently divorced her husband. In the process, she lost her son. Phnom Penh Municipal Court awarded custody of the boy, La Sany, to his father, in what Bou Somaly says was an arbitrary decision.

Bou Somaly, who has filed a complaint with the rights group Licadho seeking help in her case, says she was asked to bring her son to the court. She did, and when La Sany saw his father, he ran to him and hugged him.

“The judge asked him, ‘Do you like your father?’” Bou Somaly recalled in a phone interview recently.

When the boy nodded, the court gave him over to his dad.

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