Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Iranian court orders 'stingy' husband to buy 124,000 roses

A "stingy" husband has received a court order forcing him to buy his neglected wife 124,000 red roses.

Iran's Etemad newspaper reports that the woman - known only by her first name, Hengameh - decided to claim her mahr, or dowry, after ten years of marriage as a way of punishing her husband's tight grip on the family purse-strings.

"Shortly after marriage I realised that Shahin was very cheap. He even refused to pay for my coffee if we went to a cafe or restaurant," she said.

A long-stemmed rose in the Islamic Republic costs 20,000 rials, or a little over £1 - so the full bouquet, if such a vast array can be so called, will weigh in at around £134,000.

Iranian authorities have seized Hengameh's husband's apartment - worth 600 million rials or around £32,500 - until he has bought her all 124,000.

The husband, identified as Shahin, denies the accusations of thriftiness. Claiming that he can only afford five roses a day, he complained that it was "her billionaire friends who had put such ideas in her head."

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