By UAE Editor for GME, 28.5.11

Dubai: Gulf News reports that a woman has filed for divorce after she claimed to have made a chance discovery of her husband's alleged relationship with another man.

The woman, believed to be from a Gulf country, filed her divorce claim before the Dubai Sharia Court, saying she accidentally noticed a love text message that her husband received from his gay partner on his mobile phone.

The woman alleged in her claim that her husband started behaving “oddly and abnormally” a few months after they got married and she had seen him wearing “her lingerie at nights and using her perfume”, a court source told Gulf News. It is interesting that Gulf News reports that the husband “wears women’s underwear” which is often cited in connection to homosexuality in the Arab press throughout the gulf as a sign of “abnormality” and “disease”. In other words, if this is true, it is a homophobic attempt to discredit further the husband.

She said she received the “shock of her life” when she heard her husband hiding in another room and chatting with another man on his mobile phone.

At first the woman tried to avoid confronting her husband, until her suspicions were confirmed when she discovered that her husband is cheating on her with another man.

The woman alleged in her claim that her husband was constantly chatting with his gay partner online or exchanging mobile messages with him.

When she confronted her husband, the woman claims that he refused to break up with his gay lover and she also learnt that he “enjoyed playing the woman's role”. The woman claimed that she learnt that her husband's lover too was married and had two children.

The woman claimed that her husband had confessed to her that he was gay. He had also apparently told her that she was free to stay with him or file for divorce. The claimant also stated that her husband told her that he did not care for her opinion or decision. GulfNews reported that a a judgment is expected soon.

Gay Middle East fully understands the pain and disappointment in such unhappy marriages. Such problems would be resolved very quickly if homosexuality was decriminalised in the UAE and social expectations would be adjusted. If families were to accept their members as who they are rather than forcing them to get married, a lot of toil and trauma would be spared from everyone involved. We call upon the Dubai court to act responsibly, dissolve the marriage (without penalising the husband) and advise the Dubai Emirate to change its laws to avoid such unhappy situations in the future.