Saudi Woman Seeks Divorce After Husband's Guantanamo Phone Slur
THE TELEGRAPH: A Saudi woman is seeking a divorce after she found out that her husband had nicknamed her 'Guantanamo' on his mobile phone.

The woman made the discovery while examining the list of contacts in her husband's phone when he left it at home one day, the Al-Watan newspaper reported. >>> | Monday, October 19, 2009

50-Year-old Divorces Child Bride?
REUTERS INDIA: JEDDAH - A 50-year old Saudi man has agreed to divorce his 9-year-old bride, media reported on Thursday, after the marriage drew international criticism.

The decision, reported by newspapers Alwatan and Al-Riyadh, came after months of court hearings, criticism from the United Nations and an international media frenzy about Saudi Arabia's human rights practices.

"This is a good step and I think the man did it because he was in a lot of pressure from everyone," Wajeha Al-Huaider, founder of the Group for Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, told Reuters by telephone.

Al-Huaider, who campaigned for the child, said she hoped the pressure generated by the case would eventually lead to a law banning child marriages. >>> | Friday, May 1, 2009

Saudi Jihadi Divorces Wife by Text Message
THE TELEGRAPH: A Saudi man has set a legal precedent by divorcing his wife by text message.

The man was in Iraq when he sent the SMS informing her she was no longer his spouse. Saudi Man Divorces Wife by Text Message >>> | Thursday, April 9, 2009

Saudi Court Rejects Divorcing Eight-year-old Girl
AFP: RIYADH — A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty, a lawyer involved told AFP.

"The judge has dismissed the plea (filed by the mother) because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty," lawyer Abdullah Jtili told AFP in a telephone interview after Saturday's court decision.

The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 220 kilometres (135 miles) north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.

"She doesn't know yet that she has been married," Jtili said then of the girl who was about to begin her fourth year at primary school.

Relatives who did not wish to be named told AFP that the marriage had not yet been consummated, and that the girl continued to live with her mother. They said that the father had set a verbal condition by which the marriage is not consummated for another 10 years, when the girl turns 18. >>> | Sunday, December 21, 2008

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Court to Consider Divorce for 8-Year-Old Girl
NEWS.COM.AU: A SAUDI court will next month hear a plea for divorce from an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man in his fifties, the Arabic-language daily Al-Watan reported today.

It said the girl's mother had filed the divorce case with the court at Unayzah 220km north of Riyadh, and cited lawyer Abdullah Jtili as saying the father had arranged the marriage without telling the girl.

"She doesn't know yet that she has been married,'' added Jtili of the girl who is about to begin her fourth year at primary school.

Al-Watan said relatives of the girl had told a Saudi rights group of her plight and urged it to intervene to have the marriage annulled.

But the daily also reported that the husband had refused to renounce the marriage, saying that he had not done anything illegal.

Arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents are occasionally reported in the Arabian Peninsula, including in the ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom where the strict conservative Wahabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common.

In Yemen in April, another girl aged eight was granted a divorce after her unemployed father forced her to marry a man of 28. [Source: Court to Consider Divorce for 8-Year-Old Girl]

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia)

The End of the Road for Nicolas and Cécilia
Photo of Nicolas and Cécilia courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Cécilia Sarkozy says her marriage broke up because unlike her former husband, president Nicolas Sarkozy of France, she wanted to escape the limelight.

“For him it’s like a violinist, who has been given a Stradivarius, suddenly he has the chance to practice his art,” she told regional daily L’Est Republicain in her first interview since the couple’s divorce announcement.

“It’s not the same thing for me.”

The Elysee yesterday confirmed the couple had divorced “by mutual consent” after 11 years of marriage and a turbulent last two years.

“We tried everything, I tried everything. But it just wasn’t possible anymore...Public life doesn’t suit me,” she said.

“I am someone who likes to be in the shadows, who likes serenity, tranquility,” she said. Cécilia Sarkozy: Public life doesn’t suit me (more) By Henry Samuel in Paris

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy’s Marriage On the Rocks
THE TELEGRAPH: President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and his wife Cécilia have divorced "by mutual consent", the Elysée Palace confirmed today.

Pressure had been building on Mr Sarkozy to make a statement about his marriage amid fears that the issue could overshadow the EU summit in Lisbon, where European leaders are due to agree a text for a simplified European treaty.

Mr Sarkozy, 52, and Cécilia, a 49-year old former model, have been married for 11 years and have five children: two each from their first marriages and their own son, Louis.

The television news channel LCI and the Liberation newspaper quoted judicial sources yesterday as saying that Cécilia had applied to a judge for a divorce on Monday and that a judge visited the Elysée Palace later that evening to see Mr Sarkozy to validate the procedure. Nicolas Sarkozy announces end of his marriage (more) By Henry Samuel in Paris

Nicolas Sarkozy 'struck by lightning' at Cécilia By Henry Samuel in Paris

Frankreichs Präsident Sarkozy und seine Frau trennen sich: Bestätigung nach wochenlangen Gerüchten

LE FIGARO:
Nicolas et Cécilia Sarkozy divorcent de Samuel Laurent

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE:
Nicolas Sarkozy et son épouse Cécilia officialisent leur separation

Mark Alexander

Nicolas et Cécilia
LE FIGARO: Selon LCI, Cécilia Sarkozy a déposé lundi une requête de divorce auprès du tribunal de Nanterre. L’Elysée se refuse à tout commentaire.

Rumeur, toujours, mais rumeur qui se précise. La chaîne LCI affirme mercredi que Cécilia Sarkozy «s'est rendue, sans son époux, lundi matin au tribunal de Nanterre» pour y déposer «une requête en divorce auprès du juge aux affaires familiales».

Toujours selon la chaîne, qui ne cite pas ses sources, «le président de la République ne se serait pas déplacé au tribunal en compagnie de son ex épouse mais aurait reçu la visite du juge le lendemain» à l’Elysée. Les Sarkozy auraient "matérialisé leur séparation" (suivant)

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE:
Le couple Sarkozy aurait formalisé son divorce

NZZ:
Sarkozys Ehe vor dem Aus: Cécilia soll Scheidung eingereicht haben

Mark Alexander