Saudi men who divorce non-Saudi women are currently allowed to force their wives to leave the country and in many cases never see their children again.

Unlike in Western countries where marriage to a citizen grants automatic citizenship in and of itself, non-Saudi women who marry Saudi men do not get citizenship and can be asked to leave the country at any time. Since the children are the property of their father, the ex-wives can't take the kids with them.

One divorced mother of six who is originally from Syria told the Saudi Gazette that since she got divorced she has not been allowed to see her kids. She is terrified of being expelled from Saudi Arabia and never seeing them again. Her oldest child is only eight years old, and they "still need the care of their mother," she said.

The Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry is in the process of examining possible solutions, including granting residence permits for women caring for their children.
While this is great in theory, I have a feeling that most Saudi ex-husbands will find a way to throw a monkey wrench into the best laid plans. The Foreign Ministry might let the women stay in the country, but the ex is under no obligation to let them anywhere near the kids.

While I sympathize with the plight of these women, there's an element of "What did you think was going to happen?" going on here. We've said it enough times before — Saudi Arabia is not exactly known for its women's rights movement, and the laws are barbaric at best. When it comes to Saudi marriage proposals, let the buyer beware.

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Women's rights activists are up in arms about a contentious divorce case in Tennessee that may result in the local marital property laws to be changed. According to an article in Tennessean.com, "a wage-earning husband gets to keep $1.7 million in stock. His homemaker wife gets nothing."

Okay, I admit, when we're talking about the rights of the stay-at-home spouse — and let's face it, while many husbands including my own are starting to stay home, it's generally the wife — and there are a few million dollars in play, I can see why people are getting concerned. Some are suggesting that if this settlement goes through as is, it could be precedent setting and go against state laws.

But, and there's a really big but, I don't think that this case has anything to do with the wife being a homemaker. The court says that the husband is being allowed to keep the stock and not share it because all he did was hold it after receiving it as a gift from his father. Her employment status is irrelevant.

In my opinion — and I know this is going to make me the bad guy — when you decide not to work, you take a risk. A gift given to one individual is just that — a gift with only one intended recipient. If Daddy had given him a cheese knife, is she entitled to half of that, too?

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I have never been so angry in my life. Coming from a woman who separated from her husband after four months of marriage, that's saying something.

A girl in Yemen went to court last week to prosecute her father for making her marry a man 22 years her senior. She went to the court by herself looking for a judge to try her case. Her name is Nojoud Muhammed Nasser, and she is eight.

My son is eight. He does not yet have the hand-eye coordination to play his brand new PlayStation. He still needs me to cut his meat for him when it's too tough. On rough days, he still sleeps with his blankie.

"Whenever I wanted to play in the yard he beat me and asked me to go to the bedroom with him."

She wanted to play in the yard. The girl is trying to sit outside and build goddamn sand castles and her "husband" drags her upstairs and rapes her.

Up until 10 years ago, Yemeni law said that children could not marry until 15. In 1998 that law changed, allowing parents to contract their children out into marriage, although their spouse is not allowed to engage them in sexual activity until maturity. For the record, that 10-year-old law was enacted two years before little Nojoud's birth.

The husband is in jail. "Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me. But if the judge or other people insist that I divorce her, I will do it. It's ok."

Well, thank you, Faez. That's very big of you.

The father, who beat her when she objected to the marriage, was also jailed but released when he suffered health problems. The court does not plan to return her to her family, as there would be nothing to stop them from forcing her to marry again. She will instead be placed in the care of a non-governmental children's organization.

There but for the grace of God go we.

As a recovering Mormon, I love me a good Mormon joke. I love the bigamy jokes and the 15-children-per-family jokes and the magic underwear jokes. But Mitt Romney? Perfection in joke form.

Back in December, there was great hullaballoo in the divorce industry about a new study showing that divorce was bad for the environment. A lot of taxpayer money was spent discovering that two toasters use more energy than one, and the Christian right took the opportunity to claim that this was further evidence that they were correct in saying divorce was the work of the devil.

Now the delightful Bella DePaulo at Huffington Post has taken it upon herself to make the should-have-been-obvious connection between Mitt Romney and the study in question. She wrote a time capsule piece, jokingly looking forward eight years to see what will happen as a result of the environmental study.

"Some are intent on establishing households comprised of just one man and one woman," says her fictitious Romney of the future. "I am a Mormon and Mormons have a long, rich history of living with many people under the same roof. We marry again and again and again, and we stay married each time."

In DePaulo's prediction, while Romney didn't do well in his 2008 presidential bid, he fares much better in 2016 because of his heavy focus on bigamy and the environment.

She also predicts a new discontent among children of this new generation. She says that children who would have believed their parents stayed together for the sake of the kids would finally know the real truth... "Mom and Dad were not protecting them; they were saving the planet."

It looks like it's not just the adulterers getting divorced these days. According to an article I read over the weekend, many evangelical Christian groups are relaxing both their attitudes about and criteria for divorce.

Traditionally speaking, the only acceptable reason to get divorced in many of these circles was adultery. I guess that meant that if he beat the kids you could leave, but you couldn't make it legal. Nowadays, many Christian churches are expanding their list of reasons to split to include abuse, abandonment, and emotional cruelty, and they're saying all of the above reasons can be biblically justified.

Well, it's about time. Here's my issue: There seems to be a prevailing belief in the churches of the nation that says divorce is wrong because God can solve your marriage problems. That may be, but both husband and wife have to want to make it right.

If one of the members of the union is being unliveable and sees no reason whatsoever to change their behavior, why should the victim be forced to remain in the marriage?

Try counselling, they say. But what if your spouse won't go? Pray together, they admonish. But what if your spouse won't pray?

Paula White, the divorced author of You're All That, says that God can mend any relationship "if both persons are willing to come into alignment with His principles." Frankly, if both parties are willing to align on any principles, their marriage can probably be saved. If not, let them get divorced and make somebody else miserable.

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It seems like every week we report on a new country experiencing an upswing in divorce, and India is no different. I read an eye-opening piece the other day about the rise of Indian divorce, and some of the possible causes.

The article basically said that three things are at the root of the Indian divorce boom. One, couples have more money, making them less dependent on their families for support. Two, women are becoming more economically self-sufficient than ever before, making them less dependent on their husbands. Three, and probably most notably, Western influence has become more ingrained in Indian culture, making the traditional Indian marriage not good enough anymore.

Couples want love, instead of just family-sanctioned baby-making. It seems Indian couples are in a real catch-22. The only way they can break free from traditional cultural norms is to distance themselves from their parents and extended families. If they do that, however, they lose the support structure that is inherent within that way of life. While it's easy to look at a rise in divorce as a bad thing, I think it rarely means that more marriages are failing. It means that just as many marriages are failing, but now the parties involved are empowered enough to do something about it.

The piece referenced one woman, Christina, who ran home to her family because her new husband was beating her and kicking her out of the house in the middle of the night. Her parents' first reaction was the old-style one -- they sent her home and told her to make it work. Later, Christina found out that her husband was gay, and went back to her parents. This time, they welcomed her back, understanding that the marriage wasn't going to work.

Custody sucks. Everything about it is hard. As a member of the couple getting divorced, nothing is ever good enough. If you get full custody, you're overwhelmed. If you don't get full custody, you're lonely and angry and you have to watch your kids get handed around like a tray of cakes.

A concerned grandmother recently wrote in to The Washington Post, looking for advice. Her three-year-old granddaughter is in primary custody of her daughter's ex-husband, but living arrangements are split in half. Two weeks of the month she's with Dad and new girlfriend, the other two she's with Mom and Grandma, and every other weekend she's with the other grandparents.

The granddaughter's in pre-school while she's with Mom, but Dad thinks she needs more family time and keeps her at home during his weeks. Grandma is concerned the little girl will feel rootless, and that being away from pre-school means "she is losing any consistent social and educational opportunities."

Frankly, honey, there's nothing you can do. As far as feeling rootless goes, the only way to give her one consistent location is to remove at least one important person from the equation and that person is likely going to be Mom. Dad's already got custody and it seems there's nothing wrong with him, so that's unlikely to change. If it were to change, you might be doing the little girl more harm than good when taking her away from one of the homes she's known for two years out of her three-year life.

As for preschool, relax. She's three. She's not missing out on anything. Three-year-olds are barely verbal, so missing out on hanging out with her "friends" and discussing the latest episode of "Go, Diego, Go" isn't going to do her any harm.

You remember when you told your mother you were getting divorced and she told you that you're better off without him? She should see this one.

Recently, a Saudi man was out shopping with his wife and children. He and his wife split up the list and he sauntered off to fill his cart. In the meantime, the wife was being schmoozed by some stranger, who handed her his phone number. She took it, the husband saw her, and he flipped his lid.

The Husband Of The Year promptly went up to a cashier and asked her if he could use the intercom. Here's what he said — apparently, it's a direct quote: "To all those present and all the shoppers. Please listen to me. I want you to bear witness to what I say." He went on to publicly announce that he was divorcing her, and drove off with neither soon-to-be-ex-wife nor kiddies in tow.

First of all, sources say it's common in Saudi Arabia for men to chat up women very aggressively, prompting many women to just accept the offered phone numbers simply to make the Casanovas go away. I'm guessing this woman wasn't actually thinking of hooking up with the guy in the dairy aisle. Secondly — although I don't know the details and quite frankly, I don't want to — there's some law on the books that says when a man announces his intent to divorce in a public way, that's it. They're done. Kaput. They cannot reconcile.

All I can say is that I thank God this man will soon be single. My divorce is going to be final this year and I'm on the hunt for hubby number two.

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We've written more than once on First Wives World about the traumatic effects that divorce has on children. Many readers and writers here have experienced for themselves the dramatic changes in their kids' behavior, school performance and relationships.

On the other hand, many men and women who have gone through a divorce themselves have struggled to find ways to cope and even thrive in the post-divorce period. Marvin Gaye wrote an album about it. Anastasia Royal wrote a novel. And Libby Rees wrote a self-help book — when she was 10.

"Help, Hope & Happiness" was a "runaway success," offering advice and encouragement to children going through their parents' divorce. When Libby was going through it herself — her parents divorced five years ago — she said that she received a lot of support from the adults in her life. The problem was, she — and others like her — feel that parents and other adults are just telling children what they want to hear. She felt there was a huge gap in information for children old enough to understand what was going on, but still too young to really know how to handle it.

Turns out, she was right. Her book has been translated into five languages, and she's taking part in a television series based on the information she gives.

So what did she do to get through the hard times? "One of the first things I did was go for walks to help me think more clearly. I would pick up a stick, label it with whatever was worrying me that day, then fling it away. It was my way of distancing myself from it."

Because I work for a website about divorce, I have a Google news alert that notifies me when anything related pops up in the news. These days, it seems to be all about Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, but I ended up reading a funny — and not funny in a good way — question to an advice column over the weekend.

The writer lives in a small town and his wife cheated on him. He's got little kids and wants to know if a formal divorce announcement indicating they've split up might stop the gossip and protect the boys. Samantha Louis wrote a piece a while back about The Sunday Times saying that divorce announcements are a growing trend. But will it work in this case?

Um, no. You live in a small town. Your wife had an affair. You have young twins. This is salacious stuff — the gossip will not be stopped. It certainly won't be stopped when all your friends and neighbors get an engraved announcement in the mail.

Over the last few decades, a lot of the stigma has been removed from things that were previously taboo. People are openly gay, teenagers have babies, and people get divorced. In New York or San Francisco, nobody bats an eye. But small town living means small town gossip. This man can turn the other cheek, wait it out, or move — that's about it.

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