In Saudi Arabia, all a man has to do to divorce his wife is to utter, "I divorce you," "I divorce you," "I divorce you."
Indeed, he only has to announce his intentions by saying, like some kind of magical wizard, "I divorce you" three times.
A recent report out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia related a story about one man who followed this custom by text-messaging his spouse. He then followed the three-line requirement by phoning two family members to verify his wish to end his marriage and thus seal the divorce.
The court upheld his action. It was the first time any man had text-messaged his spouse in that country in order to facilitate a divorce.
It puts a whole new light on the "quickie divorce" in the Untied States.
In Nevada, where the urge to marry is just as great as the desire to split, the divorce rate is the highest in the nation. Massachusetts, in case you wondered, has the lowest divorce rate.
The reason the rate in Nevada is so high is because of the short residency statute there which requires a couple from outside the state to reside in Nevada for only 6 weeks and one day in order to file for divorce. Compare that to other states whose residency requirement is usually 6 months and one day in order to get unhitched.
Added to Nevada’s short residency requirement is the fact that residents of the state can also obtain a divorce in only, on average, a couple of weeks. However, when you compare the time for a dissolution of marriage in Nevada with the Saudi Arabian version of a "quickie divorce", it seems like a rather drawn-out process.
It makes one wonder if we’ll see the day when we’ll be text-messaging wedding vows as well.