Cyber Infidelity: iPhone, Blackberry, Facebook & Twitter Triggering Divorces in Dubai

The iphone, BlackBerry and social media such as Facebook and Twitter seem to be triggering divorces across Dubai and the Middle East.

Reports suggest that a number of married couples are insecure with their spouses in what is labelled "cyber infidelity".

"Cyber infidelity does not have to physically mean that one of the spouses cheated the other," says Abdul Salam Darwish, the Head of the Family Guidance and Reconciliation Section at the Dubai Courts Department, as reported by Gulf News.

There are instances where a husband divorced his wife after she had posted her photos on Facebook.

Although there are no concrete figures on the number of divorce cases because of social media, there is reportedly a significant increase in the number of cases citing cyber infidelity.

The family reconciliation section at the Dubai courts reportedly receives not less than two divorce cases a week involving suspicious communication through social media as the reason.

"We have had cases of wives claiming divorce because their husbands communicated with women on WhatsApp or BlackBerry Messenger and husbands filing for divorce because their wives interacted with men on Twitter or opened Facebook accounts or posted their photos without their permission," Darwish was quoted as saying in the Gulf News report.

In many cases, people seem to seek divorce immediately after they get to access their spouse's account either accidentally or intentionally and find they communicate with people of other gender supposedly cheating on them.

There have been even cases where the wife has cracked the password of her husband's iphone and finding out other women's photos in it.

Not all cases are beyond reconciliation, though. "A husband wanted to divorce his wife after he discovered that she set up a Facebook account without his permission. He suspected her character because she added male friends. Due to suspicions, the husband divorced her. At later stages, we convinced them to reconcile and they returned to each other," said Darwish.