KUWAIT, 15 August 2003 — The guests were arriving at the bride’s house, filling the living room with laughter and joy. The bride took up position in the center of the room and waited for the groom to come and take her to their new home.
But the groom did not come.
At midnight, the guests began to get bored, glancing at their watches. With each ring of the bell, necks craned toward the door, and with each ring of the bell they were disappointed.
An hour later the last guest had left and the bride made a dash for her room to cry. The groom’s mobile was turned off and his family had apparently already left their house to spend their vacation elsewhere.
The next day the mother asked the groom to come over and asked him for the reason why he didn’t show up.
She was shocked to hear that he had forgotten the date.
The bride exploded with anger, tears running down her cheeks: “I am not an object — I am a human being with feelings. Like every girl, I have lived my whole life waiting for this night.”
The groom rose up from his chair and said angrily: “You are my wife. I will set another date of my own choosing.”
He announced the new date and the bride agreed.
On the night of the wedding the groom called his bride to find out how things were going, and she told him that she wouldn’t be attending the celebration.
He begged her, but his entreaties fell on deaf ears, and the celebration went ahead without the bride.
When the parents of both the bride and the groom begged them put an end to this mockery, the bride told them that she no longer wanted her groom and couldn’t imagine living with him under one roof.
When all attempts at conciliation failed, the two sides decided to take it to court. The bride demanded that she gets her divorce and her full rights as a wife while the groom demanded that he be divorced and the dowry to be returned since the marriage hadn’t been consummated.
The court ruled that since it was impossible to determine which party was at fault the bride would be divorced and would have to return the dowry.
Khalid Abdel Jalil, a lawyer for the groom, said marriage should be protected if it rests on sound foundations. “But if these don’t exist then separation is the best solution,” he told Sayidaty, a sister publication of Arab News. “This relationship had lost the most important pillar, which is mutual respect, companionship and decent treatment. It was therefore imperative to separate the couple.
Abdallah Al-Kandari, the bride’s lawyer, said the groom put the bride in an impossible position an continued to harm her afterwards.
“They had agreed the wedding date and it was on that basis that she had prepared for the night’s celebrations. When he didn’t show up it caused her and her family embarrassment.
If this is what he is capable of at the beginning of their married life, imagine what he will be like later,” he added.
