Comment on Facebook costs woman her marriage

Ramallah: A casual and apparently inoffensive post on a Facebook page seems to have cost a Palestinian woman her marriage.

The woman, who had been engaged for the past 18 months to a man she met via Facebook, broke off the marriage because of a “Like” and congratulatory comment she posted on the Facebook page of a female friend.

The Ramallah case comes only few days after the Palestinian Higher Fatwa Council approved connecting online with members of the opposite sex with the aim of marriage for residents of Palestinian territories.

The woman, identified as M.A., was engaged to a Palestinian US resident identified as A.A. a year and a half ago. The couple was scheduled to tie the knot in the coming summer.

A senior official at Ramallah Sharia Court confirmed the case to Gulf News, saying that the groom sent an official authorisation document for his lawyer to represent him at the court.

The official did not comment on the reasons, saying that the engagement had already been broken when the case reached the court. He stated that the role of the court was to enter the official record.

M.A. told Ajyal Radio that A.A. broke off with her in online messages and that he had written the words “you are divorced, divorced, divorced” in online text messages.

She is aware of the official registration of the engagement breaking off, having received a document from the court.

The woman claimed the breaking of the engagement was provoked by a post she made on the page of a female friend her husband knew and had never before objected to.

M.A. said she had posted a congratulatory comment to the former classmate who had married and who had posted a picture of her party online.

In M.A.’s post she wished the woman and her husband all the best. M.A. wrote in her comment “the prettiest couple. God bless you both and grants you prosperous life”.
The woman said that she came to know her former fiance via facebook and that the site has also ended up the reason for their split.

She labelled his way of thinking as backward and said she was not sad for losing him. M.A. said that the man clearly wants a woman who does not have any knowledge of Facebook or internet applications.