Article

2008-05-18 Arabia

Saudi wants divorce after husband lifts her veil

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Posted by Fred 2008-05-18 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#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|| 2008-05-18 05:21|| Front Page Top

#2 Yikes, all this time I've been sleeping with a bulldog. urp !

Posted by wxjames 2008-05-18 12:05|| 2008-05-18 12:05|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm starting to think it will take mandatory global nudity to straighten this sort of crap out...

Posted by M. Murcek">M. Murcek 2008-05-18 12:40|| 2008-05-18 12:40|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2008-05-18 12:56|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2008-05-18 13:04|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2008-05-18 15:48|| Front Page Top

#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">Frank G 2008-05-18 18:39|| 2008-05-18 18:39|| Front Page Top

#8 Ernest Borgnine with a unibrow would probably be a trading-up situation...

Posted by Zebulon Cretle4504 2008-05-18 19:03|| 2008-05-18 19:03|| Front Page Top

#9 that's right....Ernest was clean-shaven
*shudders*

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-05-18 19:14|| 2008-05-18 19:14|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2008-05-18 20:15|| Front Page Top

#11 Wow, these ladies must have a very serious vitamin D deficiency.

Posted by crosspatch 2008-05-18 21:49|| 2008-05-18 21:49|| Front Page Top

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