Husband Accidentally Divorces Wife on Skype

A Qatar man is paying a heavy price for a joke he made in a Skype chat—his marriage. He jokingly wrote "talak, talak, talak" ("I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee") to his wife. He then apparently got worried and wrote to Islamic authorities about the matter, admitting that he doesn't "understand Islam very much and did not know about how talaq works." The authorities told him the divorce stands, reports the Telegraph.

What's worse, in order for the Qatari and his bride to be reunited, she must wait three months, marry another man, have sex with him, divorce him, wait another three months, and then marry her original husband again, the clerics ruled. "Allah and his Prophet has said the worst thing a couple does is to seek divorce," said the leader of a large Muslim organization. "This is a hated act but the provision for Talaq in Islam is for unavoidable circumstances not for teasing or jokes." (More Skype stories.)