True-Life Divorce Cases [Archives:1998/23/Reportage]

By Safiya Abdulaziz,
Yemen Times
Several divorced Yemeni and non-Yemeni women and men were interviewed about the reasons behind their divorce.
1. Mrs. Lamia from Ibb:
“My marriage was a mistake from the beginning. Because the man who asked for my hand was the son of one of the famous sheikhs, my father accepted his proposal regardless of fact that he was only 20 years old and I was not even 15 years old.
“We got married and lived in a very nice house. But my husband was a very bad person. He was still a high school student who never succeeds. Nearly one year after we got married I was pregnant. Here troubles started. My father-in -law stopped giving us any money. He wanted his son, my husband, to work. My husband refused to work at all. He went to Saudi Arabia. Three months later he divorced me. What hurts me more is that they took my son and never allowed me to see him again.”
2. Mrs. Seena, an Egyptian who was married to a Yemeni:
“I came to work in Yemen in order to support my brothers who were studying in Egypt. Here, I met a Yemeni man from a rich family and soon we got married.
“I lived with him 6 years during which we had 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys. When my father-in-law died, his sons decided to take all the property and deprived my husband of his inheritance unless he divorced me.
“Later on they agreed to accept me as their brothers’ wife if I just forgot about my brothers and my country. Unfortunately, my husband did not stand by me. He divorced me and took my children to live with him. Now, I’m leaving for Egypt in the coming few days.”
3. Mrs. Saba from Al-Udain:
Before I got married, I was a school headmistress in Al-Udain. Since my family was rich, I used to deposit my whole YR 18,000 salary at the bank. There, I met a man whom I thought loved me. Actually, he loved my money.
“We got married and had three children. Then, my husband started to be angry whenever I took my salary to the bank as I usually did. When I refused to listen, he beat me, pushed me outside the house and divorced me. He took my children to live with him after that. Its been 4 years now since I saw them.
4. Mrs. Mary, a Hungarian dentist who was married to a Yemeni man:
“I me my ex-husband in Hungary where he was studying medicine. We got married, and I converted to Islam. Since we came here, he took me to work in Sa’ada. He was living in Sanaa with his first wife. I did not know that he had another wife but I just accepted the situation for the sake of my children.
“He did all that he could do to have me leave Yemen. He called my father in Hungary to come and take me back. At the end he divorced me and agreed to let me take my son with me only for two years. I’m leaving for Hungary tomorrow. I’m very sad to leave my daughter here but I just can’t do anything.”
5- Mr. Marwan Hussain, a victim of infidelity:
“I met my ex-wife in Saudi Arabia while she was living there with her brother. I loved her very much. Despite of my family’s wishes I married her and came to live with her in Yemen.
“I opened a cloth shop and had a young man as an assistant. As I had to leave Sanaa once for private business, I told my wife that I might be late for a day or so.
“When I came back home in the evening, I found my wife with my assistant. He jumped to his death out of the window. I wanted to kill her too but the neighbors came rushing in because they heard the noise of the crash.
They tried to relax me and advised me it was better to divorce her.
“I thought that by divorcing her and throwing her to the streets, my troubles would end. She was preparing herself to fly with my children abroad. One month later, I came back home finding a catastrophe waiting for me. She took my children, sold my furniture, stole my money, and just went away. Today, I’m lost. I have no wife, no work, no children, nothing at all to live for.”
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