After 30 years of marriage, cynics might say most husbands and wives would have seen quite enough of each other, thank you very much. But not in the case of one Saudi Arabian man who managed to live with his wife for three decades without setting eyes on her face. Not that he had much choice about it. His 50-year-old wife followed the tradition of her native village near the south-western city of Khamis Mushayt and kept her features veiled at all times.
Until one night last month, that is, when the husband was finally overcome by curiosity and tried to lift his wife’s veil as she slept to take a look at her face. It was an error he is unlikely to be given a chance to repeat for his outraged wife woke up during his sneak peek and is now demanding a divorce. ‘After all these years, he tries to commit such a big mistake,’ she told Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh after leaving the house in disbelief. She said her husband apologised and promised never to do it again, but she insisted she wanted a divorce. And neither the husband or children of Om Rabea al-Gahdaray, 70, have ever seen her face. It was a family tradition, also followed by her mother and sisters, which her husband accepted and never tried to change, she said. When asked how she could have children without her husband ever seeing her face, she replied: “Marriage is about love, not faces.”
So, I’m guessing she prefers sex with the lights off.
Ahhh, eating forbidden fruit again. Happens over and over.
Islamic nutballs.
It probably looks like it was set on fire and stomped out with golf shoes.
Reminds me of the Hawthorne story The Minister’s Black Veil
>>Islamic nutballs
Hey, did you read the article? “It was a family tradition”. Get it? Like Uncle Bennie the Atheist, who wants to diddle Caitlyn after she goes to bed. Or the ass-bandit priests who lust over little Timothy’s smooth, white, Christian ass. Nothing to do with Islam.
I like the story. It shatters the stereotype of oppressed women being forced to wear veils. Apparently many like to. Also, in a broader sense, it reveals a freedom for a person to maintain a dignified privacy throughout their lives. The tradition can be seen as a glimpse of the richness and variety that is possible during a human life.
Lol Mus’tard. I have read the article. While it isn’t a requirement of Islam it seems most that practice it are Muslim.
Islam nutballs!
Flame away ‘tard.
30 years? Didn’t she start to smell after the second night?
THIS IS BULLSHIT
I AM FROM SAUDI ARABIA AND I DONT SEE ANY OF THIS!!
Hey Ali!
I see this in Canada! I had to let a staff member go as she converted, married in one week to a guy the leaders set her up with and then couldn’t go out in public unless fully and I do mean fully covered. Then she was not allowed to drive or be in the company of men.
I chalked it up to being a defective. Then again I see a lot of defectives every day who should be covered up.
Mustard – Fundies in all religions are by any reasonable standard, mentally ill. But seriously, as batshit loopy as any member of The 700 Clubs target audience may be… shouldn’t there be a special entry in the DSM-IV for the barbaric, backward “traditions” of these evolutionary throwbacks?
The veil is innocuous enough… but it’s the tip of an iceberg that includes female genital mutilation and church sanctioned murder for rape victims. These aren’t quaint people with funny clothes. This is a culture that serves as a vicious cautionary tale to us of what will happen in America if a religion ever gets control of the government.
#11, OFTLO,
You’re going to LOVE the next election if McCain actually chooses Huckabee as his VP!
It all boils down to ignorance.
OMD!
There is an Islam saying,
Never look your goat in the face or it may not love you in the darkness of that night.
Cripes. The story is in the Daily Mail..it probably is bullshit.
Meanwhile McCain is not picking Huckabee. Get over it.
The scream probably woke her up.
Well this contradicts the usual stereotype of the Islamic male who is free to do anything he wants to his wife (like beat her gently if she dis-obeys). I guess it’s clear who really wears the veil in that family.
—
McCain/Clinton ’08 !!
>>This is a culture that serves as a vicious
>>cautionary tale to us of what will happen in
>>America if a religion ever gets control
>>of the government.
Well, no religion will get control of the government, not as long as I’m a registered voter.
On the other hand, as Mr. C. Dvorak points out, the story is probably bullshit. Third-world tinfoil hat stuff.
I don’t believe any of it…
9. ali You’re right, of course. At the same time, I don’t doubt somewhere, an individual person or group can develop an outrageously weird behavior. Take Mister Mustard for example…
#7 The Pirate. Islam nut balls!
I sure hope you’re not typing that while ritualistically cutting off the end of your baby son’s dick.
RBG
How did that woman leave the house alone? She has to face court before her claim could be considered. Liberal Dogs!
man I dun know what to say but I’m from Saudi Arabia too never seen something like this not even heard of it. this is bullshit man.
and pleas people stop saying stuff about us that makes up look from the stone age. We’re modern society and smart people so pleas stop Americans.
modern? come on man! i ived there. the buildings are modern. the cars are modern. the telephones are modern..the people? especially between man and woman? come on man, take a vacation in a country that is beyond the stone age and think about it…
#22, saad,
A woman I know was stationed in Saudi Arabia. She was a Captain then, flying the real big planes. Whenever she would go into town, she would have to have a man drive the car. She couldn’t wear her uniform, she had to wear a full body gown. She couldn’t eat in a restaurant with her fellow officers.
The judgment for stealing was to have your hand cut off. Even if you didn’t do anything, if you were arrested you were guaranteed to be tortured until you confessed. The death penalty was to have your head cut off by a sword. No appeal.
So if you don’t want to look like you come from the stone age, try living as a civilized society.
BTW everyone, this is not islmic anyway, those are not following the islamic system, they are a minority in saudi arabia, she shouldnt cover her -pretty- face from her hussband. she should cover from strangers only.
There’s some other funny medieval psychological subtext going on here. Had a veil over her pussy, more like it.
Anatomy 101 is a class him & many others won’t get to take until they’re old & twisted.
So, wtf is she saving it for? The idea behind the veil is to keep un-related men from being tempted to reduce a woman to a sexual object. So, now that she is married, wtf is she saving it for? I can see the veil being appropriate (for their belief system) for outdoors or having visitors over, but in the home between the spouses this should not be an issue.
Mister Mustard – Good but the report may be true.
Mr. Gawd Almighty – what you say probably has nothing to do with Islam but only the tradition on Saud. The monarchy there has to do these things to keep fundamentalists and democracy at bay.
You cannot complain about the people steeped in tradition. Everyone in the world cannot follow the same practices or have the same values. Why complain? The woman got to divorce the man. That’s great. I bet there are lots of women in the US who are in unhappy relationships with their men but cannot get out of it because they are not financially secure.
#15, John. Yea, we all know Huckabee won’t be the VP. That’ll to to Romney. McCain will fill the newly created Minister of Religion cabinet post…
#27, MV,
Mr. Gawd Almighty – what you say probably has nothing to do with Islam but only the tradition on Saud.
I refer you to #22, saadtech,
and pleas people stop saying stuff about us that makes up look from the stone age. We’re modern society and smart people so pleas stop Americans.
Never heard of such a thing.
Thought Islam can let the husband see the wife’s face only but covers only to outsiders?
Unbelievable…