The university professor didn’t realize that accepting free food would end his married life. But when he decided to break his Ramadan fast by accepting free food traditionally offered to the poor, his wife decided to sue for divorce, claiming his decision had dishonored her status as a descendant of wealthy Turks.
The professor's error was to pull up a seat at a Ma’ida Rahman (meaning "table of the merciful") set up in the street for fast-breaking during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Anyone is welcome to help themselves to the food, although it is primarily intended for poor people who cannot afford to buy their own meals.
The wife told her lawyers in 6th of October City that she had married the professor years ago, despite the fact that her family opposed the marriage due to his meager social status. To make matters worse, her husband had had difficulty earning his professorship, whereas she got hers within a short time, she argued.
The final straw came when she learned that her husband had sat down to break his fast at the Ma’ida Rahman. The professor was seen by one of the neighbors, who informed her of the incident. The man’s behavior ill suits a university professor with a wife of her status, she said.
The husband, for his part, confessed to eating the free food. However, he argued that he ate the meal in his capacity as a "normal citizen" and not as a "university professor", hailing from an ordinary family of modest means “which doesn’t condescend to anything,” according to his words.
The family lawyers attempted to persuade the wife to reconcile with her husband and drop her request for a divorce, but she remains determined to bring the case to court.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
