A millionaire property developer has failed in an attempt to prevent his wife divorcing him after he moved in with his new girlfriend.
Haushang Jafari, 60, claimed that he was allowed to take a second wife under Sharia law.
His wife, Aghdas Bidaki, was a granted divorce o the grounds of “unreasonable conduct” at Bristol County Court by Recorder Susan Jacklin.
She filed for divorce after Mr Jafari’s new partner, who now uses his surname, became pregnant for the second time.
Mr Jafari and Aghdas were married in Iran in 1978 and had three children. She told the court that he had moved out to be with his new partner after complaining about her cooking.
“He had other relationships but I put up with it for the sake of my marriage. I put up with it because my family would say it would pass and once he was older and wiser it would be fine. What I didn’t know was that this time it was serious. There was a two-year-old boy and she was pregnant with another. Then I realised I am not going to put up with it. I could not compete with a woman 20 years younger than myself. He didn’t care about me.”
Ms Jafari said Mr Jafari, who was not present at the hearing, was “….polygamous, that’s the end of it.” She claimed: “The whole of Islam is based on the principle of polygamy, whereas the Bible is based on the principle of monogamy.”
Recorder Jacklin granted the decree nisi, saying: “I am quite satisfied there is unreasonable behaviour and this marriage has irretrievably broken down.”
A wife’s cooking is very important in a marriage.