Indian Told to Leave Wife After "Divorce" in Sleep

A Muslim couple in India have been told by local Islamic leaders they must separate after the husband "divorced" his wife in his sleep, the Press Trust of India reported.

Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word "talaq", or divorce, three times in his sleep, according to the report published in newspapers on Monday.

When local Islamic leaders got to hear, they said Aftab's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as "triple talaq". The couple, married for 11 years with three children, were told they had to split.

The religious leaders ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry they would have to wait at least 100 days. Sohela would also have to spend a night with another man and be divorced by him in turn.

The couple, who live in the eastern state of West Bengal, have refused to obey the order and the issue has been referred to a local family counselling centre.

India's minority Muslim population is governed by Islamic personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and property inheritance.

"This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local 'community leaders' or whosoever has said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law," said Zafarul-Islam Khan, an Islamic scholar and editor of The Milli Gazette, a popular Muslim newspaper.

"The law clearly says any action under compulsion or in a state of intoxication has no effect. The case of someone uttering something while asleep falls under this category and will have no impact whatsoever," Khan told Reuters.

Bizzare! I'm wondering though about the fact that if this woman would have to spend a night with another man and then be divorced by him, then she could well have made up the story of him talking in his sleep, to legitimise having a quickie with the new guy on the block!?

I tell you what though, if the wife and I convert to Islam, I'll be sure to leave a tape recorder in the bedroom at night so she can't pull one over on me, while occassionally telling her that she had repeated "talaq" 3 times in her sleep! Especially if I spot a tasty chick like this one in my neighbourhood.