Make ‘peas,’ not war: Kuwait woman divorces husband over food habits

A woman in Kuwait filed for divorce just one week into her marriage, citing the way her husband ate peas with bread instead of a fork as a reason to separate.

The woman accused him of poor table manners, and said she found his pea-eating habits a “shocking sight” and could not stay with her husband, local newspaper al-Qabas reported on Monday.

The case is just one of several where more conventional marital issues such as infidelity and abuse were not the cited reasons for divorce.

In another case in the small Gulf state, a woman told her attorney that she wanted a divorce because of his “stubborn refusal” to squeeze their toothpaste tube at the end, rather than the middle as he had insisted on doing.

In a similar case, a man got divorced after his wife refused to bring him a glass of water – she had argued that the domestic helper could do it instead.

Kuwaiti legal experts say that the failure to accept the other person’s preferences is one of the main reasons for divorce in the country.

“One critical issue is that many spouses should use their engagement period to know each other well enough to decide whether they should go on with their union,” one expert said.