Suha Arafat, wife of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, 2012 (screen capture:Youtube/AlJazeeraEnglish)

“Nine years after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, his widow said she regrets the marriage and given the choice again, would not have wed him,” reports the Times of Israel. “‘The marriage to Arafat was a big mistake and I regret it,’ said Suha Arafat in an interview published last week in the Turkish-language Sabah newspaper. ‘We were married for 22 years and it felt like 50.’ Arafat added that she had repeatedly tried to leave her husband but was denied her freedom.”

“‘I tried to divorce Arafat more than 100 times and he didn’t let me,’ she said. ‘Everyone knows about this story, especially those who were in his inner circle.’ According to the report, the two first met in 1986 when she was a student in Paris and engaged to a local lawyer. At the time, Suha recalled, the Palestinian leader, 33 years her senior, was a much sought after man.”

“’Even if I have regrets I accept the reality,” she added. ‘Arafat was a great leader and I was very lonely in my marriage. I was always on the defensive because of the rumors that they spread about me. But life without him is even harder…..If I could turn back time I wouldn’t marry Arafat.'”

I’d encourage you to read the full article. If accurate, it’s a very sad story. Let’s pray for Suha and her family that they would come to faith in Jesus Christ and find what the Bible calls “a peace that passes all comprehension.”