'Stingy' Husband Ordered To Buy 124,000 Roses

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

The ruling was issued by an Iranian court and, unlike most rulings on gender issues in the country, it will be cheered by women worldwide.

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's 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 is quoted as saying.

A long-stemmed rose in the Islamic Republic costs 20,000 rials, or around $2 - so the full court ordered rose arrangement will cost around $250,000. Under Iranian law mahr, offered by the man to the woman at the time of marriage, can be claimed at any time during married life or divorce proceedings.

Iranian authorities have seized Hengameh's husband's apartment - worth 600 million rials or around 65,000 - until he has bought her all 124,000 roses.

The husband denies the accusation of being stingy says he can only afford five roses a day, and complains it was "her billionaire friends who had put such ideas in her head."

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