Manama: A Saudi woman has proven that height is important in matters of the heart after she filed to divorce her husband, citing his sort stature.
The woman, in her 20s, has told the endowment department in Al Qatif in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province that she wanted to be separated from her husband of seven months, saying that she could no longer withstand the mockery and shocked looks of her friends because he was too short for her.
She added that the shocking attitudes by strangers in public when they remarked how she was towering over her husband made her feel painfully uneasy and distressingly uncomfortable, Saudi daily Okaz reported.
Shaikh Mohammad Al Jirani, the head of the endowments department, said the case was among the most peculiar they had received.
Most Social media users condemned the move by the young woman, claiming she was utterly insensitive in her attitude and blaming her for accepting to marry him when he proposed.
The few who supported her said she was right to ask for the separation, arguing that her uneasiness was not a matter of days that could be overcome with patience, but of a lifetime.
According to a study by New York University published last year, researchers found that height might affect “more than just a man's suit size.”
The study concluded that “short men married later in life than average or tall men, but were 32 per cent less likely to divorce. They were also more likely to marry less educated and younger women. Once married, they did less of the housework and earned a much higher income than their spouse.”
According to the findings, tall men married sooner in life, but were more at risk for divorce later on, as shorter men had more stable marriages. Tall men were also more likely to marry women closer to their age, and who were better-educated.
The researchers argued that “from the perspective of relationship exchange models, this indicates that the tallest men exchange their attractive attribute (height) for better-educated spouses, while short men are unable to do so.”
