Repo-Family: Tale of a Repossessed Saudi Wife, La Marseillaise in Arabic……….
Alarabiya reports the tale of Saudi citizen Suleiman al-Rub’i, who is waiting and hoping for his family to rejoin him. Apparently his wife was repossessed by her father because he was late in some payments of her price. He had married his wife three years ago, after agreeing with her family to pay her mahr (bride price or dowry) in installments because of his financial situation. He told the daily Okaz that he married on installment and that tribal precedence allows him to pay for the bride over a period. He said that his monthly salary of SR 1800 (about US$ 480) does not allow him to make the payments on a regular basis, and that he has asked for a transfer closer to his job in order to save money. He said he has paid SR 10,000 as a down payment, and another SR 10,000 in exchange for the bride staying at her own family home. These are required early down payments. He says that leaves SR 15, 000 (US$ 4,000) after which he will be free of the tyranny of the tribe and custom. He says a recent salary increase of SR 300 will enable him to make regular payments. Tribal rules allow the father to take the wife back, away from her husband if the husband fails to make the payments, even if she has born him children.
A monthly salary of US $ 480 for a school guard, in a so-called richest nation (or one of them) on earth. There are many, probably a few million, like this man. What they need are not media interviews, but pitchforks, a lot of pitchforks. (FYI: the Saudi king is to attend the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris next month as a special guest of that weasel Nicolas Sarkozy).
But how does one sing La Marseillaise in Saudi Arabic?
Cheers
mhg
Mon Email
Comments