According to Emirates 24/7 news, a Saudi husband used a loudspeaker to divorce his wife at a busy shopping mall after seeing her take a note from another man bearing his phone number.This, according to the Saudi Arabic language quotidian, Kabar.
The husband was with his wife and three children at the mall when he went his own way into a men’s clothing shop.
“When he left that shop, he saw a man giving his wife a note bearing his phone number…she accepted the paper and put it inside her bag,” The newspaper did not mention where the mall is located.“He then used the mall’s loudspeaker to shout divorce words against his wife although she was with her three children.
Earlier this year, a Saudi man broke up with his wife because she disobeyed him by going on a business trip without his consent.
The man phoned a radio program dealing with marital problems to complain about his wife to host Sheikh Ghazi al-Shammari, a prominent Islamic scholar. The unnamed man said his wife “offended his manhood” by traveling from the Saudi port city of Jeddah to the capital Riyadh for a business conference, alone and without his approval.
Al-Shammari concluded that the man had to divorce his wife.
“Such a wife is suspicious because she insisted to travel alone to Riyadh and without ample reason,” Al-Shammari later said, as quoted by Al-Arabiya. “I did not rush with the advice because I saw that the issue was dangerous and that we should not remain silent more about it.” The caller decided to heed the advice, and divorced his wife of ten years – during the live broadcast. Al-Shammari said the man should consider remarrying her if she repents for her actions.
Two years ago, a Saudi man divorced his wife by sending her a text message.A court in the city of Jeddah finalized the divorce, which under Saudi Arabia's Islamic Shariah law only requires a man who wants a divorce to tell his spouse "I divorce you" three times, The Daily Telegraph reported. The Telegraph said the divorce is believed to be the first in Saudi Arabia to be initiated by a text message.
The man, who was in Iraq at the time the message was sent, called on two relatives to confirm his intentions in court.
The Arab News reported the man was in Iraq for "what he described as 'jihad.'"
Just a few days ago, a Saudi man in his 30's divorced his wife for having an account on Twitter without his knowledge according to Arab news. The husband asked her to cancel her account after he found out that his wife had many male and female followers.
"He took the decision to divorce when she refused, after which she went to her father’s house in Jeddah.
The husband tried to call her back and according to their relatives, reconciliation efforts resulted in a suggested agreement under which the husband will have to pay an amount of money to his wife, who will in turn delete her account.
However, the wife insists on keeping the account, saying the husband’s action was unjustifiable and that she is not convinced that simply being on Twitter could cause a family dispute of this scale. Members of the family said efforts are ongoing to bring the couple back together, and that the reconciliation money could be doubled."
Early last year,Guinness World record judges confirmed that Abdulaziz Goldstein became the first man to divorce his wife via twitter.The 38-year-old Saudi sent the termination tweet of ‘I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you’ to his former wife, who wishes to remain unnamed, while away on business in Bahrain in February of this year. It was only when friends suggested that Goldstein might be the first to use the platform to make such an annulment did he contact Guinness.
“I’m amazed,” he told The Pan-Arabia Enquirer from his hometown of Riyadh last night. “When I sent the tweet, I never thought in a million years that I would be the first to do so. It just seemed like the obvious way to do it at the time, as I had run out of credit so couldn’t send an SMS.” Using the remaining 96 characters of his tweet, Goldstein is believed to have asked his then wife to remember to take the trash out and pick up his mother from bridge club.
I find the last article to be dubious though. For a start I have not come across original Najdi Saudis with the surname of Goldstein and neither have I come across a bridge club within the Riyadh area. It is articles like these that create a mockery towards Islamic values and towards an Islamic lifestyle in totality. Divorce in Islam is a very serious issue and usually when a couple is heading for a divorce both sides of the family will make tremendous efforts to provide the couple with advice and also encourage reconciliation especially if there are kids involved. In an authentic hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar, the Prophet Muhammed (saw) said," Of all the lawful acts the most detestable to Allah is divorce." Usually, the husband will give one talaaq either written or verbally. In other words he will say "I divorce you" once. The husband and wife will then stay under one roof for a period of three months without having any sexual relationship."The waiting period helps to prevent hasty terminations due to anger and allows both parties time to reconsider as well as to see if the wife is pregnant. If the wife is pregnant, the waiting period is lengthened until she delivers. At any point during this time, the husband and wife are free to resume their conjugal relationship, thereby ending the divorce process. During this waiting period, the husband remains financially responsible for the support of his wife." There are various other laws and regulations pertaining to the divorce issue and in general it is not as simple as saying "I divorce you" three times. Whilst many people from other parts of the world may find it shocking and presumably frown upon the fact that women in this region can be merely divorced via sms, twitter,on live national radio or through a mall loudspeaker (quite bizarre in my opinion), this is unfortunately divorce Saudi style!!
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