NAJRAN, 18 January 2008 — Following a decade of marriage that produced four kids, a man decided to divorce his wife after he learned that as infants they had suckled from the same woman.
In Islam (and in certain cultures), children who breast-feed from the same woman become siblings in all senses of the word, including a prohibition on marriage.
The man claims that a dream interpreter in this southern Saudi city claimed that his wife was his sister. Then, he told a local newspaper, upon further investigation he discovered his milk relationship to his wife.
The phenomenon of milk mothering pre-dates Islam and is found in many cultures worldwide, especially in Africa. Surrogate mothers have historically nursed the children of other women, becoming second mothers to the kids.
These surrogate mothers often nurse the children of many different mothers. In smaller villages in the Arabian Peninsula men often have a hard time finding potential brides because the same surrogate mother may have nursed so many members of the small community, turning them into siblings and thus prohibiting them from marrying.
