We have heard the saying that “Mian Biwi raazi … tou Kya kare ga qazi”.
It may be true most of the time, but not in the Kingdom of the House of Saud. It’s just plain amazing.
A husband and wife are living happily … but not ‘ever after’. Because Saudis, in their love of Islam, have come up with yet another fatwa, making it possible for woman’s half-brother to cause divorce between the couple.
Sad still, the fatwa from one court was upheld by the higher court.
Riyadh, Jan 31: A Saudi couple have been forced to divorce against their will by a top court because of arcane tribal customs which allowed the womans family to seek a split, the pairs lawyer said on Sunday.
Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahem said the court had upheld a ruling from a lower court and backed the divorce on the basis of the man`s family background.
“The appeals court in Riyadh has supported the divorce because of inappropriate lineage,” he said in a statement.
The family of the Saudi woman, called Fatima, began legal action in 2005, saying her husband was not of sufficiently prestigious tribal stock to marry her, and had lied about his tribal background.
The woman and her two children were imprisoned for refusing to return to her family`s custody after the lower court first annulled the marriage. Custom in the conservative kingdom requires women to live with their families until marriage.
Saudi Arabia rules by an austere school of Islamic law often termed Wahhabism, and judges in family courts are themselves Wahhabi religious scholars.
Lahem said the ruling contradicted the principles of sharia, Islamic law, which objects to discrimination in terms of color, nationality and race. The issue was dramatized in a popular comedy show aired in October that ridiculed the idea of tribal superiority, which is still strong in parts of the country.
Bureau Report
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=91604&d=1&m=2&y=2007
JEDDAH, 1 February 2007 — Fatima, the 34-year-old woman who was divorced by a judge in absentia at the request of her half-brothers, has refused to leave prison in Dammam into the custody of her only legal male guardians (mahram), the men who broke up her marriage.
Fearing for her safety, the lawyer in the case said yesterday that he sent on Monday a request to the minister of social affairs asking him to put Fatima in a women’s shelter. He also said prison officials have refused him access to his client. Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, the lawyer representing Fatima and the man she still considers her husband, 37-year-old Mansour Al-Timani, told Arab New yesterday that earlier this week the family asked Alkhobar police to turn Fatima over to their custody, which is the legal procedure.
Alkhobar police then took Fatima from Dammam prison officials to her family, but she refused to go with her relatives.
Dear reader, you thought you had seen everything. Right?