JEDDAH, 6 August — Statistics released recently by the Shariah Court in Dammam, which reveal that there are almost 18,000 divorces annually in Saudi Arabia, have created a debate in the Kingdom.
Divorce in the Kingdom is no more a matter of shame, according to a report carried by Al-Yaum Arabic newspaper. Gone are the days when being a divorcee meant you were socially stigmatized. “Divorce has become a matter of course,” the paper states.
Abdul Rahman Al-Mulaify, a Shariah court judge in Dammam, views the growing number of divorce cases as unhealthy, and says they should “make everybody lose sleep.” Divorce cases in the Kingdom would be reduced, he argues, if people were more observant of Shariah law.
Of the 17,528 divorces lodged throughout the Kingdom during 1998-99, some 1,316 were in the Eastern Province — a disproportionately large number. It was with this in mind that the judge called for an in-depth study into the causes of increasing divorce rates in various parts of the Kingdom. “Divorce undermines the family as an institution and negatively affects the upbringing of children,” he added.
“Divorce is the most hated of the things allowed by God. It is necessary, if a couple are unable to continue their married life happily; but only after all efforts at reconciliation are exhausted. In such cases, divorce opens the door to a new life for both the husband and wife, provided it is done in accordance with Shariah.”
Al-Mulaify further lamented that many people announce their intention to divorce for trivial reasons.
A Saudi woman divorcee told Al-Yaum that she demanded a divorce from her husband when she was one-month pregnant because she felt that her husband’s family did not like her. She subsequently remarried, but then decided she could not continue living with her second husband either — this time because she believed he loved his first wife more than he loved her.
After these experiences, she is reluctant to marry again. “I am only living to bring up my son,” she told the Arabic daily.
Nouriya, another Saudi woman, spent her honeymoon with her husband in another Arab country. “Afterward, I discovered that my husband wanted to continue visiting that Arab country, but on his own, about once a month.
He had, it transpired, fallen in love with a waitress in the hotel where we stayed during our first visit!”
Nouriya parted with her husband when he insisted on continuing his affair with the waitress.
However, R. Al-Qahtani has an altogether different story to relate, which shows how divorce offers people an escape from a genuinely abusive relationship.
She was married to a youth for three years after her first husband died in a car accident. “Six months after I gave birth to his child, his attitude towards me changed completely. He made our life hell. He started beating me and spending nights out with friends. One day, he threw me out of the house at midnight with my three children without showing any mercy.
“I returned to him once again, but when he finally beat me up so badly that I was hospitalized I had to say enough was enough,” she recalled.
