Egyptian woman seeks divorce after husband locks fridge, rations food, and takes key to work

Dubai: An Egyptian woman has filed for divorce after five years of marriage, telling the family court that her husband locked their refrigerator with a key he carried to work — rationing access to food and even placing their young son’s milk in a separate locked box.

What began, she said, as a seemingly ordinary marriage after a brief courtship at a relative’s wedding soon turned into what she described as “life in a camp,” governed by strict rules, cold exchanges, and an absence of warmth.

“Everything had a schedule, even the kitchen,” she told the court. “If I needed to prepare food for my three-year-old, I had to wait until he came back from work with the key. Once, we spent the whole day eating bread and cheese because the milk and vegetables were locked inside.”

She claimed her husband’s rigidity went far beyond the kitchen. Every expense was scrutinised; every interaction, she said, was reduced to orders and prohibitions.

There were no kind words, no tenderness, and any attempt to object was met with sarcasm or derision.

She described years of silent endurance, hoping to preserve her home, only to find the quiet had solidified into what she called “a wall of coldness and defeat.”

The husband told the court he locked the refrigerator to control household expenses, alleging that she would share food with neighbours without his consent.

“I’m not locking it to humiliate her,” he insisted. “It’s to keep the household budget under control.”

The court adjourned the case to a later date to assess whether reconciliation was possible or if divorce proceedings would go forward.