‘My wife doesn’t want Islam, I’m divorcing’

WHILE many marriages are falling apart due to infidelity, others are breaking down because of religion.
This was heard in the Matero Local Court in Lusaka in a case in which a man said the major reason for his marriage breaking down is his Christian wife’s refusal to convert to Islam.
But his wife said she had started reading the Muslim teachings but did not see the need to continue after he walked out on her in July this year.
In a case in which Wezi Bowa of Matero sued Osman Phiri, 37, also of Matero for marriage reconciliation, she told Justices Lewis Mumba and Petronella Kalyelye that one day when she got home from work, she found her husband had moved out.
Bowa who said the two got married in 2005 and have three children said she only found her clothes and their bed when she got home.
“I rang him to find out his whereabouts and he told me he was in Emmasdale after which he switched off his phone,” she said.
Bowa said when he went back home after a few days he told her he was tired of their marriage and left again.
She said Phiri returned with his relatives only to take her back to her family when she was four months pregnant.
Bowa told the court that after giving birth, she and Phiri reconciled because he had no job at the time, and they lived with her parents where she noticed he always came home late saying he had been fasting.
She said one day without eating or bathing, he left home and never returned.
Bowa said she was tired of Phiri’s behaviour and decided to look for a house where they could live together but when she was about to pay for it, he told her to hold on as he had found accommodation.
And in his statement, Phiri said whenever they had a disagreement in their home; Bowa would always threaten to divorce him.
Phiri said the major problem in their marriage is that he is Muslim while she is a Christian.
He told the court that before the two got married, he asked Bowa if she was going to manage their religious arrangement and she had agreed.
Phiri said he left home because she was threatening to harm him.
Fearing for his life, Phiri said he left and now lives with a friend in Northmead.
The Court reconciled the couple because there were no grounds to warrant separation.
Justice Kalyelye gave Phiri up to October 15 to find a house for his family.