Saudi appeals court upholds enforced divorce
 

(gg)

RIYADH, Jan 28 (Reuters Life!) - A Saudi couple have
been forced to divorce against their will by a top
court because of arcane tribal customs which allowed
the woman's family to seek a split, the pair's 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.

Yep!

Please don't let Mrs. WI see this! :roflmao:

And these are the good guys???

Definitely a strange set of laws that governs them, but I suspect there are equally strange laws elsewhere. Didn't we just see something about Alabama?

dicksbro,

Yessir!. Here is the current, interesting marriage law in South Korea.

Marriage may not be allowed between parties whose relationship of blood relative exists within the eighth degree (including the blood relatives for the real-adopted child kept before real-adoption).

Marriage may not be allowed between parties if either of them is or was the spouse of blood relative within the sixth degree of relationship, or if either of them is or was the blood relatives within sixth degree of relationship of the spouse, or if either of them is or was the spouse of blood relatives by affinity within fourth degree of relationship of the spouse.

Marriage may not be allowed between parties whose relationship of blood relative existed within the sixth degree of adoptive parents lineage and within the fourth degree of adoptive parents affinity

:huh: At least the rules there are clear. :wobbly:


BTW, I always wondered, did Gore invent marriage? :confused: