DOUBLE DIVORCE BLOW

Yesterday a Muslim man in Malaysia divorced his two wives within minutes of each other in the same court. Apparently both women, who are reported to get on well with each other and who both lived with the man concerned, had expressed a simultaneous desire to be divorced, begging the question whether this was some kind of plot or alternatively what extremes of behaviour he had displayed to lose not just one but both of his wives. What must have made it even worse is that the women’s occupations (a housewife and a nurse) were obviously designed to meet his every need. In any event the husband said “talaq” against first one and then the other.

Here in the UK polygamous marriages are, of course, prohibited regardless of one’s religion. It does make you wonder, however, about the complexity of the financial proceedings that could follow. Indeed those men who think they get a rough deal here when the house is sold and they receive only a small percentage of the proceeds could fare a lot worse if they had two wives to re-house and pay maintenance for.