A Saudi man in his 50s has married a school principal, a teacher and a student in the same high school and a supervisor in a different school.

“It is a rather strange and unique case,” a teacher in the same school as three of the four wives told Saudi Arabic daily Okaz. “We often talk about it and all the teachers and students see the fun part of it,” she said.

She added that the principal did not take advantage of her leading position in her attitude towards the other two wives, her subordinates, or of the supervisor when she conducts inspection visits in the school in Jizan in southwestern Saudi Arabia.

“The principal treats the teacher and the student normally, like she does with the rest of the staff and students,” she said.

Online comments criticised the multiple marriages, saying that the age difference was socially wrong.

“Can he cope with the mental, physical and material pressure to bring up children or will he just turn them into street kids?” Zeezo wondered.