Renad Ghanem Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Receiving random messages on mobile phones and messaging applications — NumberBook, WhatsApp and BBM and other dating applications — is becoming a growing menace. These applications are one of the main reasons behind couples' separation or divorce because it becomes very difficult for anyone of the partners to explain from where and why they have received an impropriety message, especially if the spouses check each others phones. Messages exchanged between both parties — anonymous man and woman — are sometimes intentional, and perhaps done unwittingly too at times. Saudi national Soha Abdullah said that she discovered her husband flirting with many women on his smartphone after he managed to find their contacts through dating applications. “I started suspecting my husband since he bought his Iphone. I never trusted him when I saw him playing with his mobile and smiling. I soon discovered that he had downloaded dating and chatting applications on his smartphone. When I confronted him, he claimed that his friend was playing with his mobile and he had downloaded those applications,” said Soha, 25. Soha's suspicions were confirmed when she pretended to be a random woman on WhatsApp and tried to flirt with her husband. He responded to her flirty messages, and a week later asked her out. When Soha again confronted him, her husband told her that it wasn't him, but his friend who was flirting with her. “I forced him to buy a normal cheap mobile so he will not have access to these applications,” she said. Mona Salem, a mother of four, was surprised when she discovered that her husband was on a chatting application using his real picture. At first she did not know what to do, however, later she discovered that her husband had a smartphone hidden in his car with all the applications installed , which he used for flirting with women. “To solve the problem I had to be smart. I consulted a number of my friends who advised me to buy him a smart cellphone as a present so he would not keep the other one hidden. Slowly my husband got tired of smartphones and he went back to using the cheap ones. It was a phase in his life and it was over,” she said. On the other hand, Saudi national Ziad Ahmed's honesty created problems for him. He said that random messages on his smartphones has created problems between him and his wife, despite Ziad being extremely open and honest with his wife. “I receive many random messages on WhatsApp and BBM, especially on WhatsApp because it's easier than BBM. I am open with my wife and I tell her everything and I told her about the messages I am receiving. Instead my wife became suspicious, thinking that I am having a relationship with another woman,” said Ziad, adding that his wife began spying on him. She asked her friends to flirt with Ziyad to see if he responds to their messages, and kept guard whenever he received a message on his phone. “She made my life a living hell. We fought and argued on silly issues. She never missed the chance to tell me that she suspected me being in a relationship with another woman,” he said. Saleh Hussein also echoed the sentiments of Ziyad. He said that he almost divorced his wife because of this nuisance. “This person was stalking me on social networking websites and through mobile applications. She emailed and sent SMS to my wife, telling her about my personality and other details of my life — most of which were true. My wife became suspicious of me and left home. Later I discovered that that person was my ex-fiancé who was trying to ruin my marriage,” he said.
