RIYADH, 7 July — A prominent Saudi sociologist has warned that the number of unmarried Saudi women will exceed four million by the year 2007 if the current trend continues. "There are now 1.5 million unmarried Saudi women because of the social disorders created by the economic boom", said Prof. Abdullah Al-Fuzan of the Riyadh-based King Saud University (KSU).

"Economic development in the past four decades has resulted in qualitative and quantitative changes on all aspects of Saudi life and social norms, especially the family," Al-Fuzan said. "If the current rate continues there will be four million unmarried women in Saudi Arabia within five years", he warned, expressing grave concern over the huge number of divorces taking place in the Kingdom. More than 18,000 marriages out of a total 60,000 solemnized in different parts of the Kingdom during 2001 have already ended in divorce.

But a study conducted by another Saudi sociologist, Mohammad Al-Saif, gives a different comment on this theory, saying that polygamy, not economic development, is in fact responsible for 55 percent of the divorces reported. On the contrary, however, one of the strongest statistical findings is that the higher a man’s income the greater the chance of the couple staying together. In fact, changes in a couple’s economic circumstances have an enormous effect on marriages, said Prof. Andrew Oswald, a European economist who argues that men and women split from economically unsuccessful partners.

A vast difference in age, he said, is also seen as risky. This is also evident from the pattern of divorce cases reported in the Kingdom. A total of 16,725 weddings out of 81,576 ended in divorce between March 2000 and March 2001. In other words, 20.5 percent of all marriages, ended in divorce.

Some Saudi sociologists contend that the changing times coupled with an increase in problems of daily life had impacted on relationships leading to a loss of honesty, sincerity, love, compassion and mutual cooperation. This is in addition to the fact that marriages in Saudi Arabia are not based on mutual familiarity. The sociologists say that all these factors lead to incompatibility, misunderstanding and eventual separation.

Another major study conducted by Dr. Ebtisan Halawani of the Jeddah-based King Abdul Aziz University in which 158 Saudi divorcees were surveyed said that "the main causes of breaking away for women from their husbands were ill-treatment, violence and hot temper". Some of them said that their separation was the result of the non-committal attitudes of their husbands toward meeting family’s financial needs. Some 38 percent of the divorcees said that the involvement of their husbands in illicit relationships led to broken marriages. In fact,there have been several surprising tragic stories behind divorces like the growing interference of relatives in personal lives, disputes over naming of the new-born, beatings and misconduct.

In one strange case, a woman was locked up by her husband in a hotel room and he left the country, leading to their separation.

Asked about the causes of divorce, Ruma Turjaman said that there has been a general decline in the influence of religion and a rise in individuality on the part of husbands contributing substantially to the rise in divorce cases. She said that it was high time we sat down and found out a mutually acceptable solution to the problems. "This growing trend of separation must be checked before it reaches an alarming level", she said.

On the growing incidence of separation and divorces, the study conducted by Al-Saif has noted that the Islamic courts have been approving 25 to 35 divorce cases every day in the country. This is a high figure. Most of the divorces occur in the first three years of marriage and a majority of divorced women had married under the age of 20. Riyadh topped the list of divorces followed by Jeddah.