Intolerable Inflexibility

'Sleeptalking' man awakes to divorce nightmare New Delhi - A muslim couple in India have been told by their local Islamic leaders they must separate after the husband "divorced" his wife in his sleep. Ms Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word talaq, or divorce three times in his sleep, the Press Trust Of India reported yesterday. When local Islamic leaders got wind of that, they said that Mr Aftab's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as "triple talaq". The couple, who have been married for 11 years and have three children, were told they had to separate. The religious leaders ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry, they would have to wait at least 100 days. Ms Soleha would also have to spend a night with another man and be divorced by him in turn. The couple, who live in the eastern state of West Bengal, have refused to obey the order. The issue has been referred to a local family counselling centre. India's minority Muslim population is governed by Islamic personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and property inheritance. Islamic scholar Zafarul-Islam Khan, editor of The Milli Gazatte, a popular Muslim newspaper, said: "This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local 'community leaders' or whosoever had said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law. "The law clearly says any action under compulsion or in a state of intoxication has no effect. The case of someone uttering something while asleep falls under this category and will have no impact whatsoever." REUTERS

A case of laws prevailing over common sense.
Stuff like that makes u wonder who's the boss - the rules or the people who made those rules.