Abu Dhabi: A Saudi woman made her husband’s baldness a reason to seek a divorce from him, only two days after the wedding, local media reported.
The woman said in her plea that she wanted a divorce as her husband concealed his baldness during and before their engagement by wearing a ghutra, the traditional Saudi cotton headdress.
The couple had tied the knot only two days before the lawsuit was filed.
The issue emerged during the counselling session set up at the family court.
Reconciliation efforts are mandatory in cases of divorce in Saudi Arabia.
The woman reportedly told the counsellor that before their marriage, the man always covered her his head with the ghutra, but after their marriage, she came to know that he was bald.
She said the man kept her in darkness about his baldness. She told the counsellor she wanted the divorce as she felt betrayed.
She alleged that he kept it a closely guarded secret but a couple of days ago, she saw him without the headdress to discover that he was completely bald. “I feel embarrassed in front of my friends and relatives and I have concerns that my children could be prone to baldness. It is difficult for me to live with him anymore,” she said.
However, the officials at the marriage counselling centre tried to placate her and dissuade her from seeking divorce over the trivial issue, but the woman remained adamant.
The couple was given another date for a second round of counselling with the hope that the woman will have a change of heart.
The husband’s lawyer branded the case “the strangest divorce case he had ever seen.” He added that a woman has the right to request an annulment of the marriage if she discovers a repulsive and persistent defect in the man, provided that she did not know about it at the time of the engagement.
