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Facebook chats cause divorce in Gaza

Facebook has enabled a new openness in Palestinian society, but also offers temptations of infidelity.
A page from the Facebook website is seen in Singapore May 11, 2011. Facebook users' personal information could have been accidentally leaked to third parties, in particular advertisers, over the past few years, according to Symantec Corp's official web blog. Third-parties would have had access to personal information such as profiles, photographs and chat, and could have had the ability to post messages, the web blog said.  REUTERS/Tan Shung Sin (SINGAPORE - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY SCI TECH) - RTR2M8NN
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Facebook chat that young Yasser discovered between his wife and one of her friends was reason enough for him to accuse her of infidelity and divorce her.

Yasser, 27, who requested that his full name not be revealed, considered his wife’s chat with one of her Facebook friends a “cruel act of betrayal.” This was not the first time that he had seen conversations between his spouse of almost three years and strangers of the opposite sex, conversations that fall contrary to Palestinian society’s customs and traditions.

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