Egyptian Woman Who Married Jamal Khashoggi, Obtains Signed Islamic Marriage Certificate

The Egyptian woman who married columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Virginia in 2018 has obtained an Islamic marriage certificate from the cleric who presided over the ceremony but had long refused to sign the document, according to the woman and her attorney, according to Washington Post.

Hanan Elatr, 52, said the cleric this month agreed to sign the certificate in exchange for her dropping a lawsuit filed in circuit court in Alexandria, Va., seeking to compel him to certify the marriage under Islamic law.

Elatr said the marriage certificate “gives me back my dignity” after some derided her as an interloper and bestows on her the credibility of being Khashoggi’s spouse when she speaks about his life, murder and the ongoing quest for justice.

The Post reported first reported in November 2018 on the religious marriage ceremony and what Elatr described as her wish then that “as a Muslim wife, I want my full right and to be recognized.”

Elatr said in an interview that she has been in hiding in the Washington area for a year while she awaits the outcome of her political asylum application. She said she left the United Arab Emirates last year after she was harassed and threatened by the authorities there over her relationship with Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post.

Elatr said she met the Saudi journalist at a media conference in Dubai in 2009. They began a romantic relationship in March 2018 and on June 2, 2018, Anwar Hajjaj, an imam in Northern Virginia, married the couple in a religious ceremony. They did not seek a civil marriage license, Elatr said, because it was not important to them and they simply wanted an Islamic ceremony.

Hajjaj did not immediately sign the marriage certificate because it was a Saturday during Ramadan, and no one was in the office to print out the document. Hajjaj promised to finalize the matter the following week, according to Elatr and her attorney, Randa Fahmy.

Elatr said she and her husband neglected to retrieve the document. After Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, she said she remembered that the imam had never given them a signed copy and sought one, according to her court filings.