Word.: The Arab Veronica Mars

Someone I know told the story of a girl who got married back in May, 2006. A few months later, she started suspecting that her husband is cheating on her. She even warned him against it. Finally, she decided she’d had enough, and was going to go out of her way to catch him in the act.

She told him that she was going to spend the weekend with her cousins at the family’s beach house, which he gladly encouraged her to do. She spent the night at her cousin’s house in the city and made plans with 2 of her friends to spy on him in the morning. The friends are ones who wear Niqab (the face is covered, only revealing the eyes), which proved great for spying purposes (she wore one as well). In the morning, they drove to her house and waited, equipped with a video camera.

A few minutes later, the husband got in his car and drove to the local hospital. A nurse got in the car with him. The wife followed them to the nurses’ housing, which is comprised of a group of apartment buildings within walking distance from the hospital. Keep in mind this is all caught on tape.

A few minutes later the girl realized her husband won’t be coming out anytime soon, so she ended up calling her father, her uncle (who happens to be a lawyer), and her cheating husband’s brother (who happens to be extremely religious). She asked all 3 of them to come meet her.

The 3 of them took the bride, along with the video camera, and knocked on the apartment door. The cheating husband carefully opened the door, only to be pushed back by his father-in-law. The bride stormed into the room, camera in hand, and found the naked nurse in bed trying to cover herself with the sheets.

The bride demanded a divorce, which the groom initially refused to do because he didn’t want to pay alimony. But after she threatened to release the video and create a scandal, followed by a harsh beating from his super-religious brother, the groom agreed to divorce her. Since couples here are divorced in court, the judge decided to sentence the groom to jail (I don’t know how long for). After all, he cheated on his wife, and they had proof of it.

The most amusing part of listening to this story was the reaction of the other audience members in my office. Sure, they thought the bride was awesome and ballsy. But the most interesting response was the fact that they kept repeating that this poor bride was only married for 8 months before she got cheated on. It was almost as if it would have been more forgivable if he had waited, say, 5 years.

I realized then that I shouldn’t be too surprised. Many men cheat on their girlfriends and wives. These men aren’t just Arab men – it’s a universal fact that some men will cheat. So why am I so surprised that these men, who 99% of the time are forced to marry their women (and vice versa), cheat?

I’m not.

I’m surprised that their wives expect it – and are waiting for it.

Almost like it’s forgivable.

On another note:

Here is a picture of my favorite married couple.