An Egyptian woman is seeking a divorce from her husband after four years of marriage citing that he had refused to buy a new TV to replace their old malfunctioning one.
While the reason may seem a bit unusual, the woman refered to as Heba, said she filed for divorce because she saw that her husband “is afraid to spend his money and only works to collect more of it.”
It was a “traditional marriage” that had brought them together, she told news website Masrawy, adding that her parents approved the 33-year-old husband because he was “financially stable.”
Four years into their marriage, Heba said she had always felt that her husband “had a weak personality” and “unable to protect” her.
The couple have a young daughter, who was born in the first year of their marriage.
“It’s for the sake of my beautiful daughter that I held onto this marriage,” she said.
“My husband prefers going out all the time alone to run away from household responsibilities.”
But it was the TV which pushed the woman too far, prompting her to file for divorce, she said.
“We had friends and relatives visiting our home, and during the visit, their children wanted to watch TV. I spent an hour trying to turn on our old TV, but to no avail. It just wasn’t working.”
While the husband was present at the time, Heba claimed that he “deliberately ignored” the issue while she felt “embarrassed in front of the guests.”
“When the guests left, we argued about it, and he still refused to buy a new TV.”
When she spoke to one of his family members over the incident, her husband's relative replied: “Will you ruin your marriage just for a TV?”
She told the news website that she left for her parents’ house after the incident, hoping to find a solution. But her husband refused to discuss the matter, she added.
Heba then asked him to divorce her, but he refused. This has prompted her to seek khula, a procedure through which a woman can divorce her husband in Islam, by returning the dowry that she received from her husband.
The case is now before a family court in Cairo’s Imbaba district awaiting resolution.
Egyptian wife asks for a divorce from husband for ‘refusing to buy new TV’
Egyptian wife asks for a divorce from husband for ‘refusing to buy new TV’
