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| Arabia |
| Saudi wants divorce after husband lifts her veil |
| 2008-05-18 |
| A 50-year-old Saudi woman asked for divorce after her husband lifted her face veil while she was sleeping, local press reported. For 30 years, the wife said she never showed her face to her husband in conformity with the tradition of her native village near the south western Saudi city of Khamis Mushayt. "After all these years, he tries to commit such a big mistake," the wife told Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, after she left the house in total disbelief. She said the husband apologized and promised never to do it again. This is not the first case of husbands who have not seen their wives' faces in decades. In the past Al Arabiya has reported the case of Ali al-Qahtani, whose wife had been wearing the face veil for the entire ten years of their marrage. When he tried to take it off, she threatened to leave and only decided to stay after he swore never to try again. Hassan Al-Atibi threatened to marry another woman if his wife didn't show him her face. The woman nominated one of her friends who doesn't observe this tradition as a possible new wife for him, saying this would be better than her showing her face. And neither the husband or children of Om Rabea al-Gahdaray, 70, have ever seen her face. Al-Gahdaray says it is a family tradition, also followed by mother and sisters, which her husband accepted and never tried to change. When asked how she could have kids without her husband ever seeing her face, she replied: "Marriage is about love, not faces." The practice of always remaining veiled, even in front of your husband, is not an Islamic practice but a very old tradition practiced by a minority of people in Gulf countries. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #11 Wow, these ladies must have a very serious vitamin D deficiency. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-05-18 21:49 |
| #10 McZoid, I didn't say we had to respect it. I was reading the political tea leaves in the Kingdom with this article as one datum. There are others, some of them posted at the Burg. There's a big fight coming among the Saudis and in typical Arab fashion it's being waged through 3rd degree indirection right now. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-05-18 20:15 |
| #9 that's right....Ernest was clean-shaven *shudders* |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-05-18 19:14 |
| #8 Ernest Borgnine with a unibrow would probably be a trading-up situation... |
| Posted by: Zebulon Cretle4504 2008-05-18 19:03 |
| #7 "I try to kiss her, but all I get is lint and sometimes a hint of Febreze. For all I know, she could look like Ernest Borgnine with a unibrow" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-05-18 18:39 |
| #6 What leverage would she have? Men get sole custody of the children. And, I kid you not, if a man does the 3-talaq declaration, and seizes the children, he OWNS his divorcee's breast milk. Sounds perverse but the woman is required to deliver same, notwithstanding the condition of the divorce. I find that we-have-to-respect-other-cultures line, rather stupid. I respect cannibal cultures more than do I respect Arab beliefs, rites and traditions. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-05-18 15:48 |
| #5 There's another angle to this, typically Arab in its convolution. On the surface this story says "respect old customs about veiling". But notice that the woman is described as threatening to divorce the guy - giving her equal rights under divorce law, which Saudi women have more or less had in theory but not in practice. So the writer is subtly promoting more autonomy and political standing for Saudi women -- and makes it palatable by presenting it as a defense of old, very conservative traditions. (Which the author also notes are "not Islamic".) Yup - that's Arab to the core, that article. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-05-18 13:04 |
| #4 So once again with the snark about a woman's appearance .... sigh I have no interest in defending face veils. That said, guys -- it's about RESPECT not appearance. In her culture -- in her tribe's archaic culture -- what her husband did was deeply disrespectful. You and I think that tribe's customs are ridiculous. But given that they are HER customs, and he knew it, he dissed her and she had a right to be pissed. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-05-18 12:56 |
| #3 I'm starting to think it will take mandatory global nudity to straighten this sort of crap out... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-05-18 12:40 |
| #2 Yikes, all this time I've been sleeping with a bulldog. urp ! |
| Posted by: wxjames 2008-05-18 12:05 |
| #1 A 50-year-old Saudi woman asked for divorce after her husband lifted her face veil while she was sleeping, local press reported. For 30 years, the wife said she never showed her face to her husband Better he did this 20 years ago. |
| Posted by: Gladys 2008-05-18 05:21 |