After about 13 months of marriage, Noha S., 26, filed a Khula divorce lawsuit against her husband Mohamed A., 31, for trying to pressure her to get rid of the cats she raises at home, Al-Watan news website reported.
The story of love began about two years ago between the couple, said Noha.
Noha added that she met her husband at the club’s gym by accident and then the two began dating. She said that what attracted her most to her husband was his understanding of her love for cats when they first met. However, he changed after they got married, she said.
He used to negatively comment about the cats’ presence in the house and would lock them in a room when he was at the house. The couple started to fight because of that, especially after Noha gave birth to her daughter, she added.
A shift in the relationship occurred because of the husband’s severe hatred of pets.
“My daughter loves them and always plays with them…which used to drive him crazy,” she mentioned.
He then started to repeat, along with his mother, that cats are evil spirits and may harm their daughter, Noha said.
He used to complain about their smell and their hair, which would cling to clothes and furniture, so Noha isolated them in a separate room of the house, she added.
“I cannot throw them away in the street. I consider them my children, but he does not understand this. Besides, he accuses me of being a maniac because of my love of cats and because I consider them family,” she stated.
“They are innocent spirits from God,” she continued.
A violent confrontation between the couple erupted because of a respiratory infection caught by their daughter. Noha said her husband accused the cats of causing their daughter’s illness and gave her an ultimatum to get rid of them, so she left the house and asked for a divorce, which he refused.
According to Noha, her husband asked her to leave their daughter under his custodianship as a condition to divorce her, which she refused.
“I left the house and resorted to the court after he rejected a quiet divorce,” she said.
The latest statistics issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) showed a rise in divorce rates across Egypt’s governorates during the first eight months of 2018 compared to 2017.
According to the statistics announced in December 2018, Cairo had the highest percentage of divorce certificates, estimated at 22,194 certificates, followed by Giza governorate with a total of 12,596 certificates, and Alexandria with 11,592 certificates.
