by Jamal Abdul Khaliq

Muhammad Al-Ghamdi says that he was happily married to his first wife, who bore him three sons. When household duties became too much for her, she asked Muhammad to hire a maid. The maid was a pretty Indonesian Muslim who was well treated by the wife until Muhammad began to show too much interest in her. Things got so bad that one day the wife began to beat the maid.

Muhammad says, “I told her to fear God and threatened to marry the maid if she didn’t stop mistreating her. Things got worse so I decided to carry out my threat. I got the maid an exit/re-entry visa and we traveled to Indonesia together and got married.

“When my wife found out, she demanded a divorce and I agreed. What is strange though is that my children love, and are more attached to, my second wife — ‘the maid’ — than they are to their mother because my second wife treats them better.”

Samira told Sayidaty, a sister publication of Arab News, that she had been married more than 25 years and, with her husband’s consent, worked as a teacher at a government school. Due to her neglect of some household duties, the maid began taking responsibility for the house and the children. Her husband began to rely on her more and more. read more