MUSCAT// After tolerating a polygamous marriage for five years, Shamsa al Faisal's patience snapped when her British-educated husband moved his third wife into their home last year.
Ms al Faisal, 42,a banker, rented a house for herself and her five children, and six months later bought her own home, ending 21 years of marriage.
Polygamy is not common in Oman, and only one in 20 married men has more than one wife, according to the ministry of religious affairs.
However, in what some people see as a sign of the growing independence of women in the sultanate, there is growing anecdotal evidence that more first wives are rebelling against the custom. Omani men are permitted by law, as they are by Islamic tradition, to marry as many as four women.
Ms al Faisal, sitting in a cafe with her arms folded across her chest and her eyes moistening, said: "When we were struggling in our early years, I supported the family here in Muscat while he went off to UK for seven years to do his master's and then PhD."
She said her husband secured a higher-paying job when he returned to Oman and used the extra money to marry two more women in the next five years. He rented a three-bedroom villa for the second wife, but could not afford a separate home for his third wife.
"Why should I share my home with another woman? I have a good job as a department head, Ms al Faisal said. "I just bought my own house, moved out and got on with my life. I don't need another man.
"We respect the Islamic law, but men must think of the hurt they cause to the first wife and the confusion to the children. Often it means that years of building up a meaningful marriage goes down the drain. It may also mean, when both couples are working, the efforts will be enjoyed by another woman if the man owns everything."
Jameela al Saleh, 41, who owns a flower shop, said she divorced her husband after he took another wife. Overseeing three employees arranging a two-metre bouquet, she said: "I asked him to leave when he wanted to move in with his second wife in our family home. When he refused, I got the court injunction and he cleared off for good," she said. "I forced the divorce through the same court proceeding when he refused to divorce me.
Ms al Saleh said she was fortunate to have had ownership of half the family home so she could afford to pay off her husband's half.
In Oman, as in other Gulf states, women are not entitled to any assets if everything is in the husband's name.
Dr Habsia al Naabi, a marriage counsellor at the Omani Women's Association, said Omani men of all backgrounds practice polygamy.
"It has got nothing to do with how much money they earn or have degrees or not. It is just a middle age-crisis phenomenon, because most of them are in their forties or fifties. They miss their youthful days, and now go for younger women," she said.
Dr al Naabi said that women of all backgrounds and education levels accept becoming a second or third wife.
She added that, in her experience, professional women leave polygamous marriages more often than women who chose to stay at home, partly because they have their own incomes.
"Working women often move out of these marriages because they can afford to. The rest just put up with polygamy," she said.
Maryam al Kasbi is one such woman. Her husband, who is in his fifties, took a new wife 20 years his junior two years ago.
"Living with another woman is hard and hurtful, especially when she is much younger and prettier. I cannot ask for a divorce because I would not know where to go. I am just a housewife with no income to support me. I just put up a brave face and tolerate it," said Mrs al Kasbi, who is in her early fifties.
salshaibany@thenational.ae
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
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