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.
55 comments
Well, I guess that, being raised in the environment that she was, what her husband did would equal to raping her in her sleep. If he knew she felt so strongly about not wanting to be seen, he should have respected it. I think that, in that particular culture, it's reasonable.
If anything like that happened in a western family, though, I'd be too busy rolling on the floor laughing.
I get what people are saying about this being a different culture and all, but could you marry somebody and live with them for three decades without knowing what their goddamn face looked like ? Culture difference aside, facial perception is such an important part of social interaction it just seems bizarre to cut it out of something as intimate as a marriage. Suppose she died suddenly in an accident; how is her husband supposed to identify the body? They'd have to prop her eyes open so he could look closely at them.
Wait a minute--he had never seen her face, and he was married to her for 30 years?
Are you fucking serious?!
Uhhh...... I thought the veil was only in front of non-family. I thought you were allowed to show your face to your husband, father, brother, sons, but nobody outside of the immediate family.
Maybe she just wants out? This gives her a 'valid' reason for a divorce?
I think the REAL crazy here is that she thinks that him seeing her face is such a terrible affront to her religious morals... that she divorces him.
That SHE DIVORCES him...
Because WOMEN DIVORCING their husbands is such a keystone of Islam
these type of tribal traditions are much older then islam
on an interesting note one of the old Beaudoin ways for a women to divorce her husband was to turn her tent 180 degrees. It was a sign that the man was no longer welcome.
What? That's the stupidest thing I've ever read on here, and that took some beating. Not even Carico, Bob, Stuporsport, Dad and David J. Stewart combined could beat this cosmic level of stupid. Thirty years? Thirty fucking years? Although I am impressed that she can divorce him in fundamental Islam - its a minor slap in the face for patriarchy.
I thought the Koran had specific rules on it. I think in part it was to balance out the arranged marriages and the whole dowry. She wants a divorce, she takes the dowry with her.
I may be wrong as this was coming from someone from India explaining why they were better than Hindus.
Phedippedes: Are you illiterate? While Saudi Arabia is a country ruled by fundamentalist Islamic law, this case is not one of Islamic fundamentalism. There is absolutely nothing in Islam, neither in the Qur'an, the hadiths or sunna that says husbands are never to see their wives' faces, nor any other part of their bodies, when they are alone and at home.
1) Why would you marry a woman whose face you had never seen?
@Septic Sceptic: That's why, even though the myth of Eros and Psyche is my favorite myth, there are some issues with the plot that still bother me. I mean, yes, I can understand that Psyche fell in love with Eros for his character and personality, the whole "inner beauty trumps all" thing, and that by looking at him while he was sleeping, she violated their trust in each other because she had promised not to. But seriously, man, how do you expect your wife to go on living with you without ever having seen your face or knowing what you look like? It's not just a question of shallowness or face value, it's just a simple matter of common sense. Besides, you felt free to look at her all you wanted.
I don't know, I just still can't understand the idiocy in this post.
I can't blame him, honestly. Yes, he should have respected her wishes not to be seen, but after 30 years? How many of us could have resisted the urge that long?
How do Musslims manage to have sex? I am imagining a 4x8 sheet of plywood with a hole in the middle. The man sticks his penis through the hole and the woman manages to impale herself on it. A glory hole. I guess it might be kinky the first couple of times but 30 years.
Christians don't seem to have much problem fucking just as long as it is within a church sanctioned marriage. And there is no restriction to getting those little sperms to the egg.
"Hello, Police? Yes, I'd like to report a missing wife... what does she look like? Well, she's got brown eyes and a veil..."
I do think that it's impressive that she's able to file for divorce at all, but disappointed that it's used for such a trivial reason. There are so many of these women in the world who are in desperate need of divorces (i.e. their husbands are abusive monsters, old enough to be their fathers, grandfathers, uncaring patriarchs, etc.) who don't have this right. This is sad in many ways.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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