More Than One Wife = Domestic Crisis

...in my humble opinion...

A few days ago there was an article in the paper about this professor committing suicide. DH asked me as I was making breakfast if I had seen it in the paper. Told him yes I had, but didn't bother to read the article, and asked him if there were "mental problems" involved, because those two words accompany every single report of suicide, here. I didn't post on it because, really, suicide is no different here than anywhere else. No matter what your beliefs are, or your feelings about the issue, the end result tends to be one and the same.

What makes it worthy of posting on today is that supposedly his problems were not in his mind, but were instead a "domestic crisis." The man had two wives. Probably no connection to the fact that having more than one wife could be a cause of any sort of "domestic crisis." Surely having more than one wife can be nothing short of domestic bliss. [Umm hmm.] But not "domestic crisis."

Since I, personally, have no knowledge on how that sort of arrangement works I am not the right person to be commenting on it. [Regardless, I'm not about to let a trivial little detail like stop me!] I can only imagine, however, that having more than one wife is cause for a lot more marital strife than anything I have read about in the newspapers, here. There is something about the fact that a man who has more than one wife has to treat them all equally. Each wife has to have what the other wife or wives have. [Think of the cost!] And, each wife spends an equal amount of time with the husband in the marital bed, or something like that. Myself, I just can't get past the "sharing" part of it. That aspect of it alone creeps me out. No matter. To each his own.

Anyway, what is interesting about the article today is that according to his second wife, "Family problems were the main reason for the suicide..." Not a single mention of the man's first wife is made anywhere in the article, although his mother "refuted reports that her son had committed suicide." He, "apparently hanged himself with a noose made from his headdress." [Slightly off topic: For an interesting pictorial on the variety of ways that a headdress, or ghutra, can be worn click here. It would appear that there is more than one spelling for the name of the headdress...]

There will, no doubt, be a full investigation over this with the second wife and the mother disagreeing on whether or not the man's death was a result of suicide. The mother sent a letter to authorities "expressing doubts over the security official's statement that her son had committed suicide." At the same time, the second wife has sent a letter saying that "she felt that strange things had been happening in their home and that some people had alleged that her husband was suffering from mental problems [bingo!] in order to give the impression that his death was a suicide." The second wife alleges that her husband "died because of pressure from within the family." She goes, rationalizing that "He had debts for the last three years. If he was thinking of suicide, he would have committed it a long time ago." Hmmph. She has a point, there, as the debts, to the tune of three million riyals, have been paid off. She indicated "that somebody was behind his death without naming the person."

First wife? Do tell!!