Man divorces wife in his sleep

From ITV.com,

A Muslim couple in India have been told they must divorce after the husband uttered the word "talaq" three times in his sleep.

According to newspaper reports, Aftab Ansari's wife Sohela heard him say the word "talaq", or divorce, three times.

When local Islamic leaders heard the news they said Mr Ansari's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic marriage law known as "triple talaq".

The couple, who have been married for 11 years and have three children, have been told they must split.

The clerics ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry they would have to wait at least 100 days. Mrs Ansari 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 and the issue has been referred to a local family counselling centre.

Mr Ansari said: "My wife doesn't want this also. She says that if she is forced to marry anybody else then she will commit suicide."

He added: "I appeal that any person who is willing to help me should come forward at this time. Because as far as I am concerned, I am sticking to my stand and the people in my society are sticking to theirs. I feel I am also saying the right thing."

His shocked wife says she wants to stay with her husband. She said: "I want to stay with my husband. I love him and don't want to be without him."

Now, there are lots of angles to approach this story, even a couple cheap shots, but out of cultural respect, let's take this approach:

Reuters also reports,

“This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local ‘community leaders’ or whosoever has said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law,” said Zafarul-Islam Khan, an Islamic scholar and editor of the Milli Gazette, a popular Muslim newspaper.

“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,”

I guess even the Islamic community has its problems with lawyers and the awesome unchecked power of the state.