By Kebba Ansu Manneh
Fatou Jawo, a twenty-one-year old student at the University of The Gambia, who was seeking to annul her two-month marriage had her case dismissed by the Cadi Court in Kanifing. Speaking to The Gambia Times, she said she demanded a divorce from her estranged husband, Sheikh Ahmad Tijan Ceesay, based not only on strong conviction that she married the wrong man but also for her health and safety concerns.
The Kanifing Cadi Court delivered a landmark judgment on Tuesday 30 October 2018 before a crowded courtroom. According to the Cadi, Ms. Jawo must refund Mr. Ceesay the dowry and all other expenses he incurred leading to their marriage. The marriage, which was conducted under the principles of Islamic rules, was never consummated by Ms. Jawo and Mr. Ceesay.
Reacting to the verdict, Ms. Jawo said “I’m really surprised with the judgment because I’m asked to pay for things that I never requested for, neither received, nor used. I think the verdict of the court is not fair on my side. A lot of things have been said about me on social media, and I believed the statements and audios circulated by Sheikh Ahmad Ceesay on different social media influenced the decision of the court.”
Ms. Jawo believes the disparaging remarks made about her on social media influenced the decision of the Cadi even before her trial began. Talking to The Times, she said, will enable her story to get out such that reasonable people will understand and empathize with her situation during this difficult ordeal.
Narrating the beginning of her love story with her now estranged husband, Ms. Jawo said, “I met with Sheikh Ahmad Ceesay at the University. He requested my number and what follows next were series of phone calls, and an invitation to meet. When I finally meet him, he requested my hands into marriage. I rejected the marriage proposal because I wanted to continue with my studies. I informed him that I will marry only after my graduation. He persisted that he just wanted to tie the knot because there is no guarantee that I will get married to him after I finish my course,” Ms. Jawo revealed.
According to her, the gifts from the man who was wooing her into marriage were not demanded by her. She said that the moment Mr. Ceesay started dashing out gifts to her, she and her family became concerned. She added that she’d asked Mr. Ceesay to stop the gifts but he persisted that they were gifts he provided wholeheartedly. “I never demanded any gift from him. It was on the 3 May 2018 when he brought ten different types of clothes for me. When I demanded a divorce, he brought a consolation letter and a laptop to appease me. But I asked him to get them from my house which he never did. When we got married he only bought one clothes for me for the Tobaski, but never bought any vehicle for me. I never asked him to pay a driving school for me, and he never paid for my tuition fees,” Ms. Jawo argued.
Ms. Jawo went through a litany of complaints against her estranged husband. According to her, she recently learned after her investigations that Mr. Ceesay had married and divorced four young girls of her age. In addition, she said, her marriage to him caused more problems between her and members of her family.
Explaining her unhappiness in the marriage and reasons for resorting to the courts for a remedy she said, “my reasons for going to the court is based on the fact that Sheikh has been lying to me. He started mixing up my family. I got the feelings that the best thing to do is to seek for a divorce. I strongly believe that he is only interested in knowing me as a woman. He never had interest in my personal plan to advance my education and to contribute my quota towards the development of my country, which I made clear to him before the marriage,” she disclosed.
Besides the “untrustworthiness,” “lying” and instigating the “feud” in her family she accused Mr. Ceesay of doing, she has another concern. Ms. Jawo told The Times that her major concern is that Mr. Ceesay may have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (SDT), which he has not disclosed to her even after she’d asked him so many times. Ms. Jawo said what worries her most is that Mr. Ceesay had complained to her that he’d an infection on his genital; and that he would go to Afrimed for a medical examination. After she’d persistently followed up with him to tell her the result, she said he never did share it. She added that the health status of her estranged husband which posed a risk to her also influenced her decision to seek divorce from him.
The court, however, did not rule in her favor. Ms. Jawo said she took the verdict of the court in good fate, and that all arrangements are on course to comply with the decision of the court. She added that she has no plan to appeal the case but will put all her energy and focus in her academic works.
In a Times interview giving his side of the story, Mr. Ceesay said that the Cadi made a ruling based on the teachings of the Holy Prophet Muhammed (SAW). The Cadi, Mr. Ceesay said, was not biased but based his ruling on the teachings of Islam.
He said the verdict was delivered based on the fact that he was taking good care of her as a responsible husband should do for a wife. But that since she asked to end the marriage, then she must pay back his dowry and all reclaimable expenditures he made on her before and during the marriage.
Mr. Ceesay also spoke about when he met Ms. Jawo and fell in love with her. “I am a government vendor I registered my company with the Registrar of Companies at the Attorney General’s Chamber. I was serving goods to MDI where I met Fatou Jawo, she was just from having lectures. I think the university is a right place to meet a girl. When I spoke with her on the phone she told me the only person she got is her mum, and I started speaking with the mum and rendered help financially,” Mr. Ceesay told The Times.
Mr. Ceesay said he has been doing all he could as a good husband to making his estranged wife happy including giving her mother D50,000. He said he bought her clothes and registered her at Njie’s Driving School where he paid D13,000 to teach her to drive. He added that he would not mind spending the same amount of money on a girl he loves and would want to marry. Mr. Ceesay concluded by saying that his ordeal, however, can be a teaching moment for everyone.
Editors’ Note: This story was updated for clarity and accuracy after it was originally published earlier today.