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Arab nations see rising divorce rate: report


ABU DHABI, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Official figures showed that the divorce rate among Arab nations was on the rise in recent years, a local newspaper reported Monday.

According to the January issue of "999" magazine, a publication of the Interior Ministry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), out of every thousand marriages in the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- there are 33 divorces, Khaleej Times said.

It said Egypt has the highest rate with divorce taking place every six minutes, followed by Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Morocco.

There is no comprehensive study on the exact number of divorce cases in the UAE, but estimates showed that the country has some 18,000 divorced women and widows, Mariam Al Roumi, minister of Social Affairs, was quoted as saying.

In Sharjah, a member of the seven-strong federation, statistics showed that divorce cases increased to 34 percent in 2008 from 26 percent in 2001. UAE nationals made up 60 percent of the cases.

The Social Affairs Ministry is planning to conduct a study on the rise of divorce cases in the UAE after the Federal National Council, the country's legislative body, expressed mounting concerns about the issue, "999" said.

"The main cause of divorce is debt," Mohammed Suleiman Al Faraj, a fatwa (Islamic verdicts) advisor at the Abu Dhabi Courts' Family Guidance department, was quoted as saying.

"Other causes are bad treatment, family interference from outside, violence and drunkenness and living with the family of one of the partners," he said.

Women's difficulty in balancing work and family commitments, conflict in nationality and social traditions and suspicions about the partner's behavior are also contributory factors to divorce, Al Faraj added.

In the first nine months of 2009, the Family Guidance division at the Abu Dhabi Courts dealt with 4,970 cases of family disputes, in which 4,656 or 94 percent of the cases were resolved.

During the same period, 3,550 new cases were registered, out of which 29 percent ended with no solution while 12 percent found a solution out of court settlement, Khaleej Times said.


http://english.sina.com/world/2010/0111/298987.html