8. Legally Divorce Their Wives
tumblrIn December 2005, while snuggled up asleep together at their home in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India, a couple accidentally got divorced. Aftab Ansari and his wife Sohela had had a little argument before bed that night, and Sohela overheard her husband muttering talaq, talaq, talaq in his sleep. According to Islamic law, a man can divorce his wife by speaking this word three times. Despite their quarrel, the two didnt actually want to split up theyd been married for 11 years, had three children, and were, by and large, very happy together. However, Sohela made the mistake of discussing the nocturnal slip of the tongue with friends, and (the phenomenon of gossip being truly multicultural) word soon got back to local Muslim leaders, who apparently demanded that the two separate. At the time of reporting, the matter had been referred upwards after judges at the local family counselling centre couldnt come to a decision that didnt involve actual, legal divorce followed by remarriage. We have to admit, we thought that this one might be a hoax it smacks a little too much of one of those Muslims be crazy stories that the tabloids like to print on a slow news day. Moreover, there seems to be plenty of precedent to suggest that talaq pronounced three times in anger can be set aside following calming down, or that there should be a period of cooling down before the final irrevocable talaq. But the original journalistic organ reporting the story appears to have been The Times Of India, so were giving it the benefit of the doubt, and hope that the Ansaris are still together and happily married and that Aftab and Sohela keep their mouths shut in future.