Manama: Two families are in the grips of a bitter dispute in Saudi Arabia following a typo in a message sent by a newly-married wife to her husband.
The wife was hosting her mother and her sisters during the weekend when she sent a message to her husband requesting nuts and dried fruits for the evening. In a second message, she wanted to remind him that she needed detergent for the dishes.
However, as she typed “Don’t forget the Fairy detergent”, the text in Arabic with the auto-correct option turned on came out as “Don’t forget, you vain man.”
She pressed the sent button without checking the text, Saudi news site Al Marsad reported.
Shocked by the unexpected “admonition”, the husband rushed home and started shouting at his wife, believing that her message was to ridicule him in front of her mother and sisters and to show them that she dominated him.
The husband reportedly did not give his wife any chance to explain the meaning of the second message, and carried by his anger, he told her that she was “a vain woman, the daughter of a vain father.”
The accusation prompted the mother to step into the dispute and accused the husband of reprimanding her daughter after he got what he wanted from her, Al Marsad said.
Realizing that the argument was descending into a full-blown dispute with his in-laws, the husband tried to calm down the situation and to dissipate the misunderstanding.
However, the mother claiming that her daughter would not stay with a man who disrespected her father, called one of her sons to drive them home.
Despite several attempts by the husband afterwards to apologise and take his wife back, her family has refused to consider his pleas and to criticize his misinterpretation of a typo on a mobile phone.
Online viewers said they were not shocked by the turn of events, but said that the dispute should not last long since both families are aware it was an unfortunate misunderstanding.
Several users referred to problems that regularly arise from the autocorrect option and said people should learn to be more tolerant and more fair play.
