Calling a mother-in-law as a prostitute of the UNIP-era is the last thing a daughter-in-law can do, but as a 30-year-old woman of Lusaka found out in court recently, it was more than just an insult. Mary Phiri lost her marriage of 13 years when her husband, Abraham Konnie, 33, told the Matero local court that he has lost interest in his wife after she called his mother a prostitute. This is in a matter in which Konnie sued Phiri for divorce. The couple got married in 2006 and has three children together.

Dowry was fully paid. Konnie told the court that problems in his marriage started in 2018 when his wife became disrespectful. “I don’t want this marriage because this woman insulted my mother. She also has no respect for me as her husband,” he said. Konnie told the court that Phiri used to beat up every female customer she found at the couple’s bar accusing them of going out with him. He told the court that the two families have sat down on several occasions to counsel Phiri but she has refused to change.

Konnie told the court that Phiri also quarrels with other people in the neighbourhood. But in her defence, Phiri told the court that problems in her marriage started when his mother-in-law took bride price to her husband’s girlfriend. “My mother-in-law told me that my husband asked her to take bride price to his girlfriend, this made me furious,” he said.

Phiri also told the court that at one time when the family had a funeral, her mother-inlaw allowed her son to sleep in the house with his girlfriend while she slept outside. She told the court that the other source of conflict came when Konnie sold the couple’s plot at K18,000 and only gave her a K1,000. In passing judgement magistrate Pauline Newa, sitting with magistrate Miyanda Banda granted the couple divorce on grounds that there was lack of love, respect and communication in the couple’s home.