Religious Talk Radio Host Tells Saudi Man To Divorce Wife and He Does- Live On Air

Chauvinism is rampant in the Muslim world, particularly in countries like Saudi Arabia where women aren't even allowed to drive. Like children and animals, women are expected to be obedient or there are consequences. Severe, at times. Women have been beaten and divorced for as little as putting cheese instead of meat into a samosa. They are even killed for 'disobedience."

And divorcing a woman is as simple as texting from a cell phone or loudspeaker at a mall. So it's not really surprising to hear that a Saudi man divorced his wife over the airwaves, after calling in to a radio talk show hosted by religious scholar, Sheikh Ghazi al-Shammari.   Apparently the man was fed up with his wife disobeying him by working and traveling alone, and this "offended his manhood."

The man phoned the program to complain to that his wife disobeyed him by travelling without his approval from the Saudi port city of Jeddah to the capital Riyadh for a business conference.

He told Shammari that before his marriage he had accepted his wife’s demands to work on condition that work would not interfere with their marital life.

Shammari advised the man to divorce his wife as a punitive measure for “committing such a mistake against her home and husband.”
The husband immediately heeded the advice and divorced her during the live program although Shammari advised him to remarry her if she repents.

Yes, it's that easy.
Shammari defended his advice telling Al Arabiya that

“The husband called me in my program this afternoon and told me that he was financially capable and did not want his wife to work and that he is having problems with her about this issue for more than 10 years and that he has been patient for long. But the issue has developed to the extent that she would travel without his approval,” Shammari said.

“He was surprised that she sent him a text message from the airport telling him that she was traveling alone... and this is why I advised him to divorce her because she was not obeying her husband, a matter that is very important in Islam.”

“I did not make a mistake with my advice to the man, because what the wife did, travelling without his consent from Jeddah to Riyadh, is a serious matter and a cause for doubt,” He said.

“Such a wife is suspicious because she insisted to travel alone to Riyadh and without ample reason,” the scholar said. I did not rush with the advice because I saw that the issue was dangerous and we should not remain silent more about it.”

The woman is obviously better off without a husband that expects blind obedience, because Islam says that's what women should do. I think the Sheikh, as much of an idiot as he is, actually did her a favor. And more than likely, she feels the same way.

Saudi Husband Divorces Wife Over Loudspeaker At Shopping Mall

Divorce in Islam (at least for the husband) is as simple as saying "talaq" (I divorce you) up to three times, and it can be for something as insignificant as a wife cooking a meal that hubby doesn't like. Take the Saudi man who was so pissed off that his wife put cheese in his samosas instead of meat that "he beat her up, divorced her and kicked her out."

Then there's this, also out of Saudi Arabia:  A husband was at a mall with his wife and three kids when he wandered off to shop in a men's clothing store.

“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,”

“He then used the mall’s loudspeaker to shout divorce words against his wife although she was with her three children.”

A loudspeaker?  That's pretty nasty. 

And equally cold, but not quite as humiliating, is how men in Tajikstan divorce their wives- by text message. But at least texting isn't broadcast over a loudspeaker so that the whole mall, and your kids, can witness the divorce.

Muslims take their 'talaq' so seriously that a man joking with his wife on Skype, and stupidly inquired with Islamic scholars about having done so, was actually forced to go through with the divorce. And, as per Islamic law, the wife would have to marry another man and then divorce him, before she could remarry her husband.