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28 March 2024

Husband jailed, to be lashed for pre-marriage affairs

Published
By Staff

When a Saudi woman threatened to report her husband’s pre-marriage affairs to stop him from having a second wife, he simply called her bluff, apparently not expecting punishment for teenage sexual adventures. He was wrong.

After seeing tapes showing him in obscene acts with women in other countries before his marriage, a court sentenced him to nine months in jail and ordered him lashed 100 times in public. Instead of feeling triumphant, the wife regretted it.

The unnamed husband was preparing to travel to another Arab country to get married again when his wife stumbled across photographs and films showing him in obscene acts with prostitutes outside Saudi Arabia.

When he rebuffed her pleas not to travel and have a second wife, she handed the pictures and films to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia’s feared Islamic police.

“When the judge saw the pictures, he ordered the arrest of the man just before his travel…the man told court that those films were shot when he was young before his marriage,” the Arabic language daily Alsaudeh said.

“But the judge sentenced him to nine months in prison and ordered him lashed 100 times…although she deprived him from his honey moon in a new marriage, his wife said she made a big mistake by reporting him as he has been nice to her…but she admitted that she did this to stop him from marrying again.”

The paper said the court also fined the husband SR9,000 (Dh8,900) and ordered all the tapes destroyed. It did not say where the man lives in Saudi Arabia.

Unknown donor moved by schoolgirl’s plea

A 13-year-old Yemeni girl who could not go to school along with her younger brother this year because of poverty decided to go on air in a desperate last-minute bid to end the ordeal.

Minutes after she made an impassionate plea through Ras Al Khaimah radio, an unknown Emirati man came on air to assure the two kids they would be able to join their class mates and that he would pay all the fees.

Nearly a week after the start of the new scholastic year, the girl and her 10-year-old brother were still at home doing nothing but peeping through the door to watch their friends trotting happily back to school after the summer break.

Their parents’ hearts writhed with pain but could do nothing as they could not afford paying their school fees. The two children had no hard feelings towards their parents as they understood their plight.

“In the end, the girl decided to make an appeal through the live radio programme which is broadcast every morning between nine and 11 o’clock,” the Sharjah-based Arabic language daily Alkhaleej said.

“She told the presenter that she had to cal him after all doors were shut in her family’s face to pay school fees for her and her brother…she said that she found that radio programme as her last hope and that she had no choice but to make that appeal because she wanted to be in school with her brother and that she was very much worried about their future.”

Just after her conversation with the presenter, an unknown Emirati man called the presenter and announced his initiative.

“The benevolent man refused to disclose his name…he said he would pay all fees for the girl and her brother so they can return to class and join their friends at school….his gesture caused a happy furor among the audience and delight in that family, who expressed their deep gratitude for him….this unknown benevolent man has just restored the smile to two innocent school children.”