RIYADH: A 90-year-old man in Saudi Arabia this morning announced he was divorcing his teenage wife, citing irreconcilable differences stemming from a lack of common interests between the couple.



Ali al-Garhoud, a retired maths teacher in Saudi’s Jizan province, claimed that Binta Salami, 14, whom he married last November after paying her family a $20,000 dowry, had showed “very little concern” for his favoured hobbies of sitting on the sofa in silence, listening to old recordings of Arabic singers like Umm Kulthum and Fairuz, or pottering around the garden while wearing slippers.



“I mean, it was great at first, showing her off to the lads and everything,” he told a local newspaper. “But then, after a while, it just seemed that we had nothing to talk about. All she seemed interested in was covering our bedroom wall in posters of One Direction, painting her shoes in glitter or messaging her friends on Facebook, And, to be honest, I just found it a bit immature.”



Al-Garhoud says he was “duped” by Salami’s family, who convinced him that despite their difference in age they would “get on like a house on fire”.



“Thankfully, the marriage agreement was made with a six-month guarantee, so there shouldn’t be a problem getting my money back. It’s just annoying that I’ve got to go through the whole process again.”