- Avarna Jain,
Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media
All Hail Shaikha Mahra For Giving Us The Instagram Divorce Template
Gone are the days of shockingly curt break-up texts and post-it notes. It’s the era of the Instagram Divorce…
Remember how celebrities would get divorced and then come up with a joint statement to break the news to their fans and followers on social media? Well, Princess Shaikha Mahra bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai has no time for all that.
The 30-year-old royal shared a post on Instagram, addressed to her “Dear Husband”, declaring that she’s divorcing him.
“I divorce you, I divorce you, and I Divorce You. Take care. Your ex-wife. (sic),” she wrote, invoking the controversial practice of tripletalaqthat’s been banned in most countries, including India. The reason, as per the princess’ post, was his being occupied “with other companions”. Do kids still say “yaaas queen?” No? Ok.
In case you’ve been living under a rock with a homogenous community of fellow rock dwellers, the practice of triple talaq allows a Muslim person to instantly divorce their partner by declaring it thrice. It’s usually invoked by men against their wives, as opposed to wives against their husbands.
The princess got married to fellow royal Shaikh Mana bin Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mana Al Maktoum last June in Dubai. The couple welcomed their daughter two months ago.
While the post instantly led to many checking whether the princess’ account had been hacked or not, Shaikha Mahra put those speculations to rest. The royal posted a photo with her daughter, with a simple heart as a caption, leaving the previous post up on her feed.
There has been no further statement from either party involved but pictures of the two of them together have been deleted from both royals’ Instagram accounts, which is about as official as a millennial can make a break-up.
Empowering or gimmicky?
Shaikha Mahra has been a vocal champion of women’s rights, often using her platform to promote and raise awareness of programs that empower women through education and entrepreneurship. The princess allows her 800,000-odd followers to get a glimpse into her life as a modern-day royal and new mum.
Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that she took to Instagram to announce that she’s breaking her relationship with her supposedly philandering husband. The agency required to take such a step could, perhaps, give wings to other women who might find themselves stuck in their circumstances without any knowledge about their rights.
Since I’m not privy to the princess’ inner thoughts, or a part of her publicity team (yet. Never say never), I cannot say whether the intent behind announcing the divorce this way online was out of a need for retribution or to get maximum exposure.
The act seems brazen and vulnerable at the same time. The princess is choosing to open herself and her private life to ripe speculation at a time that can be tumultuous for even the strongest of us. That it has provided the world with another meme template to replicate, until a brand jumps on board and lends a death knell to the trend, is just telling of the times we live in.
What do you think?
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