Saudi-owned satellite TV broadcaster Al-Arabiya is reporting a surge in divorces in the Kingdom. Recently, the divorces seem to be coming in the first year of marriage and are being linked to domestic violence, whether physical or psychological. I think the way Saudi society insists on sexual segregation plays an important role in this as it does nothing to prepare couples to living with each other. Saudi men and women come into marriage with expectations—often unstated—and when reality fails to comport with those expectations, both violence and divorce result.
One divorce case in Saudi every 30 minutes
A surge in divorce rate in Saud Arabia has raised concerns over the role of domestic violence and prompted debate on means to reign in the social problem seen to have damaging effects on families and society.
The number of registered cases of divorces in 2010 reached 18,765, which is one case every 30 minutes, and most divorces took place within the first year of marriage, the Saudi daily newspaper al-Hayat reported Sunday.
On the other hand, the number of marriages in the 2010 reached 90,983, that is five marriages every 30 minutes.
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January:25:2011 - 14:45
It would be interesting to know the geographical location of the divorces. Is it more a ‘big’ city problem, or is it general all over the country.
If it’s the former, then the problem ( if divorce is a problem) is much worse, because then it’s connected to urbanization and social structures, which both the religion, but also the tribe structure
doesn’t really have doesn’t have any answer.
January:25:2011 - 14:55
That is a good question. According to the article, they only have reliable statistics for the three major cities.
January:27:2011 - 02:24
Whenever I would go out in public in Jordan I would get about 2-3 marriage proposals a day. It amazed me at first that someone would wish to marry a complete stranger (they did seem to be quite sincere) until a friend of mine said “Arab women don’t have to like their husbands.” Here, a man who doesn’t act right will probably be either corrected or shunned by the women around him–or at least they will have extensive discussions. Even the neighborhood 12-year-old boys here will brag that “girls like me” to talk up their status with the other kids. But the Arab men I knew said when they wanted to get married they had to ask their mothers to find someone for them, since they didn’t know any women themselves. Being able to get married doesn’t seem depend on their good behavior.
I knew of two women who left their husbands shortly after they got married. One was in the countryside–she had dropped out of high school and married a first cousin. She wanted to go back to school, but the family straightened things out and she went back to her husband. Another one in the city left because her husband beat her, she said she would never go back to him. I once met another women who had left her first husband after he beat her. She had become the fourth (and main) wife of a rural man. I suppose the main problem for the women is remarriage–Arabs who have never been married don’t want to marry someone who has been married before.