Egypt: Washing machine ends couple’s court tug-of-war

Cairo: An Egyptian man had agreed to buy his estranged wife a washing machine to end a long-running court tug-of-war with her, a lawyer said.

The couple had been locked in a two-year court battle during which the wife had filed alimony suits for her and her three children at a family court in the city of Benha, north of Cairo.

In a reconciliation attempt initiated by the wife’s lawyer, the woman demanded the husband to buy her an automatic washing machine as a condition to give up the suits and return to him.

“The husband immediately accepted the wife’s demand to clear the way for the family reunion,” lawyer Majda Safi Eddin told Egyptian newspaper Al Watan.

“I succeeded in bringing the couple together at a reconciliation session, especially as they have three children,” the lawyer added. “The aim was to discuss possibility that the wife would renounce the court rulings issued in her favour against the husband,” she added.

“The wife expressed readiness for patching up things on one condition that the husband will buy her a fully automatic washing machine, a condition immediately accepted by the man. The wife has returned to the marital house along with her three daughters,” the lawyer said.

Legal steps are being finalised to end all legal disputes between the couple, according to the lawyer.

It was not clear why the wife linked an end to their legal row to the purchase of the washer.