Teacher celebrates divorce with great fanfare

Manama: Saudis on social media were sharply divided over the significance of a party hosted by a woman to celebrate her divorce.

A video clip of the party organised by a teacher at her school went viral on the internet, triggering a wide spectrum of reactions and stark divisions among users.

The teacher said that the divorce was a break out of an unhappy situation and deserved to be celebrated with fanfare.

According to people familiar with the couple, the husband had asked his wife to choose between him and work.

The woman opted to continue her teaching career and agreed to go ahead with the divorce.

In the celebrations held at her school, the teacher brought a large cake, biscuits, sweets, drinks and frankincense and put up signs that reflected her happiness. One of the signs read “The woes are finally over.”

“It seems that celebrating divorces has turned into a fashion,” Wasayef, a blogger, said. “This has to be stopped and there should be a stringent punishment so that it does not deteriorate into a phenomenon. Now, divorces are feted in public places and posted on social media. All this reflects a twisted mind,” she said.

Another blogger said that the number of unmarried women in Saudi Arabia would keep on increasing.

“It is like we do not have enough with four million unmarried women,” Millions posted. “This teacher seems to be happy to boost the alarming figure. I do not believe the claim that she was forced to choose between her career and her husband. I am sure there is more to the story. In all cases, she should not have celebrated the divorce.”

Hakeem said that people offered congratulations and gifts on marriages and not on divorces.

“This is a new phenomenon that is totally alien to us and to our culture,” he said.

However, Yara said she fully supported the teacher.

“Some men do not deserve the sacrifices their wives make,” she said. “They deprive them of their most basic rights and they refuse to allow them to work. This is humiliating and of course it has nothing to do with religion. Women should live according to the rules set by God, and not by those decided by men.”