Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The criminal court in Jeddah dropped the case filed against a man who was accused of committing adultery with a woman when he proved during trial that he was married to her under "misyar" contract. The presiding judge dismissed the case filed by the plaintive but he ordered the defendant to approach the concerned authorities to regularize his marriage contract. The Court of Appeals upheld the court decision, sealing the case. The misyar is a type of marriage contract carried out normally according to Islamic customs but with the stipulation that the husband and wife give up several rights, such as living together, the wife's right to housing and money and the husband's right to home keeping. Critics have described it as a practice that encourages marriages based purely on sexual relations and favors the husbands. A court document obtained by Okaz/Saudi Gazette showed that prosecution had charged the defendant with adultery after the misyar woman's filed a complaint with the authorities accusing the defendant of invading his house and committing adultery with his mother. The case was transferred to the criminal court demanding the man be punished in accordance to the public and private rights regulations in the Shariah. When the judge confronted the defendant, he quickly denied the charge, saying he was married to the woman through a misyar contract, which they had kept secret fearing that the woman's ex-husband would demand custody of her children if he came to know that she had remarried. The defendant told the court that he could produces witnesses to the marriage, which he did. Later the woman appeared in court and confirmed what her husband had said. She said she had kept the marriage a secret from her sons who are under her guardianship. She said she was afraid that her ex-husband might take away her children if he found. The woman told the court that she was married to the man for five years now and he was visiting her secretly at her home from that time.
