Galloway’s Muslim Wife Wants a Divorce
Charles Johnson
Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 8:53 pm PDT • Views: 704
George Galloway, the pro-Arab, pro-Saddam, pro-terrorist British MP who formed a party called “Respect,” is being sued for divorce by his Palestinian wife on the eve of the election. (Hat tip: NY Nana.)
GEORGE GALLOWAY, the controversial leader of the Respect party, is facing a damaging divorce action on the eve of the election.
His Palestinian-born wife questions how he can call the party Respect when she claims he has been disrespectful to her by having a series of friendships with other women. Amineh Abu-Zayyad has told The Sunday Times she can no longer tolerate his behaviour and will be contacting solicitors this week.
She says she has received a number of phone calls from women who claim to have had romantic links with him. She adds that Galloway has tried to smooth things over by telling her it is a plot by an unnamed intelligence service to discredit him.
The threatened divorce action will be a blow to Galloway, who is standing for election in Bethnal Green and Bow, east London. He is trying to attract the substantial Muslim vote in the constituency to displace the sitting Labour MP, Oona King.
Divorce still has a social stigma in the Muslim world where a man can technically divorce his wife by saying he is divorcing her three times. But it is still unusual for a Muslim woman to divorce her husband.
Speaking from their home in Streatham, south London, Galloway’s wife, a Muslim, said: “I should tell you that when he told me his new party was going to be called Respect, I went upstairs and cried. How can he call it this when he doesn’t even treat his own wife with respect?”
Zayyad, a 39-year-old scientist, married Galloway five years ago. They had met at a political meeting in Glasgow in 1991. “He was my hero,” she says. “He did such a lot for the Palestinians.”
Frank says: