Saudi man divorces wife over WhatsApp message

A Saudi man has divorced his wife over her WhatsApp status that he found to be defamatory.

He claimed his wife had written, “I pray to be patient enough to put up with you”, followed by his initials, Saudi Gazette reported quoting Al-Hayat.

A lawyer said the Ministry of Justice’s statistics revealed that divorce rates were at a peak in the Kingdom and the leading cause was social media.

The man, who was not named in the report, said he had felt embarrassed because he was portrayed that way.

But he admitted that he was not sure what his wife meant by her status.

He claimed his wife had taken to social media in the past to vent her anger.

The man revealed that they were having problems in their conjugal life and had decided to separate before his wife revealed his “entire life story on social media”.

WhatsApp is a popular cross-platform messaging application with over half a billion active users worldwide.

Khalid Al-Halibi, who works at a family development centre of Al-Bir Society, said social media was the “number one cause of divorce”.

He said what the wife did was “simply a mental release” and added that the husband should have had a conversation with her to understand her motives.