A Saudi woman has divorced her husband through the courts after discovering that he had married another lady. According to Al-Watan Arabic daily, the woman in her 40s took her case to Jeddah's General Court after she found out that her husband of 20 years had taken a second wife and was thereby in violation of one of the conditions of their original marriage contract. The Court of Cassation later upheld the divorce ruling. The woman, who is the mother of the man's four children, had included in their marriage contract a condition that he never take a second wife and also that she could divorce him if it transpired he had been married to anyone before. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Munee', a member of the Board of Senior Ulema, supported the ruling, saying she had “the right to divorce her husband because he failed to abide by her conditions”. The sheikh added that the man could now only return to his wife through a new marriage contract and dowry payment, although it is uncertain that he would wish to do so after the woman's lawyer said that efforts with the husband's legal representation to reconcile the couple prior to the issue going to the courts met with no response from either party. Al-Watan said that the four subsequent court hearings ended in the divorce ruling based on the principle, “Muslims must adhere to their conditions”. According to Islamonline, khula' is the name given to “the termination of marriage at the wife's request... the woman does not have to give any reasons for her desire to end her marriage. She must refund her husband all the dowry he had paid her”. It also requires a judge or “person in competent authority” who will summon the husband and “settle the matter, outlining the rights of the two parties”.
