The claim of an Iranian-born ex-millionaire living in Britain that polygamy is natural has been rejected by the courts as he has tried to maintain two wives. The second marriage was not considered bigamous by the court. In fact, it wasn’t considered a marriage at all. The court just ignored the claim of sigheh or temporary marriage, which is recognized under Iranian law. Consequently, the husband was not accused of bigamy.
The British court regarded the second wife as a mistress, and has now allowed the first wife to get a divorce for her husband’s philandering.
Property developer Houshang Jafari, 60, claimed that under Sharia law he was allowed to take a second wife. He moved out of the family home in Bristol five years ago and moved into an apartment with his new girlfriend Katrina, who adopted his family name as her last name.
Jafari’s wife, Aghdas Bidaki, 53, sought a divorce on the grounds of her husband’s “unreasonable conduct” after Katrina, 27 years her husband’s junior, fell pregnant for a second time. At a hearing at Bristol County Court, Bidaki was granted a divorce by Recorder Susan Jacklin.
Jafari was not present in court, having claimed he was bedridden with pain, and refused to attend. His mistress, granted permission to represent him in court, held up to the judge a plastic tube containing what she said was his recently passed kidney stones. She asked for a delay for two or three months on the grounds of Jafari’s ill health. A previous court session in September was suspended because of Jafari’s ill health.
The wife’s lawyer opposed the application this time, saying the mistress had not supplied sufficient medical evidence to support the claim that Jafari was too ill. The judge agreed and said that if Jafari did not attend court, the case would continue in his absence. The mistress returned after a lunchtime adjournment and said she had taken Jafari to the hospital and he had been admitted to the intensive care unit for treatment of kidney stones.
The hearing was told that Jafari and his wife married in Iran in 1978 and had three children together.
The wife testified that Jafari moved out of their home five years ago after complaining about her cooking. She previously ignored his womanizing, she said, but could not overlook the fact that now the mistress was pregnant again.
She said she had considered divorce before, but had not sought it because she knew that under Islamic law she would lose custody of their children. The children are now grown.
“I put up with it because my family would say it would pass and once he was older and wiser it would be fine,” she testified “What I didn’t know was that this time it was serious.”
The mistress explained the concept of sigheh or temporary marriage under Iranian law. Her marriage to Jafari was apparently never registered or formalized.
Jafari was quite wealthy until the financial crash of 2008, when he lost much of his personal wealth. He had put up the house in which his wife lived to secure a loan and his wife testified that she had received a notice that the house was no longer theirs. She said she feared becoming homeless while Jafari lived in luxury with his mistress.
Jafari fought against the divorce. He told the court in September that his wife “married a man who was polygamous. That’s the end of it. The whole of Islam is based on the principle of polygamy, whereas the Bible is based on the principle of monogamy.”
Granting a decree nisi, the first legal stage in England for granting a divorce, the recorder said: “I am quite satisfied there is unreasonable behavior and this marriage has irretrievably broken down. I am quite satisfied and I pronounce a decree nisi now.”
Jafari made headlines in 2010 when he was jailed for a year for attacking a helicopter that landed outside his flat. The businessman flew into a rage because the helo blew debris at his Land Rover. He tried to open the pilot’s door before kicking the aircraft, throwing a plastic bag full of chicken bones at the rotor and holding on to the skid bar, causing the helicopter to lurch dangerously to one side.