STUDY NEEDED TO TACKLE DIVORCE
By Abdullah Al-Dani
Okaz/SG | Jeddah
Prince Faisal Bin Mishal Bin Saud, Deputy Emir of Qassim, has called for studies to be conducted into the reasons for the high divorce rate in the Kingdom.
The Prince, addressing the Secretary General of the Roaa Social Studies Center, Ibrahim Al-Duweish, spoke of a need to focus on youth issues and find ways to allow them to spend their free time constructively, beginning with a survey to canvas opinion.
“Certain issues are deserving of study such as the high divorce rate, the trend towards marrying foreigners, the lack of enthusiasm for employment in the private sector and professional trades,” Prince Faisal said.
– Okaz/SG
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9 comments:
ohhh interesting.... why very hard a foreign woman can marry a saudi? Is is the same law apply today or did they change something on this issue?
Arab Mania- Supposedly it is to reduce spinsterhood amongst Saudi women. The same law is applied today and it is stricter than it used to be.
Do you get the feeling that they are trying to reduce foreigner/Saudi marriage? Or is it more about eliminating divorce all together?
The statement here and in other news sources seems deliberately vague. Certainly foreign-Saudi divorce rates are higher (50%) than Saudi-Saudi (20%) and the consequences more complicated in terms of retaining the Saudi children within the tribe. The connections to youth activities and employment are easy to guess at but not made explicit even as a hypothesis. It would be interesting to see what comes of such a study, and whether it is left open-ended to get genuine results or to "impose" predetermined ideas.
Lisa- They would probably be delighted if they could decrease the incidences of Saudi/Non-Saudi marriages. I think they are concerned that divorce rates keep climbing as much as foreign marriages are increasing. Could there be a relation between the two? Too bad Saudi Gazette didn't ask the Prince to elaborate on why he thought the two warranted a case study.
Chiara- I'm also interested in who will carry out this research and how they are going to go about gathering the information/statistics. If I remember correctly, I have also called on the Saudi government in one of my posts that they should conduct a study on either spinsterhood or the restrictions on Saudi/Non-Saudi marriages contributing to high divorce rates. I'll try to find it tomorrow insha'Allah.
I am married to a Saudi man. His answer to the stupid survey would be: a. I couldn't afford to marry there and alot of the girls are simply too spoiled (expecting big weddings, a large maher, and a certain kind of lifestyle a young Saudi male just beginning employment cannot find), b. for some families they don't have the option of seeking spouses outside of certain circles and the men find the circles lack-luster, c. foreign women who are converts to Islam before the Saudi man meets them often take their religion very serriously and aren't just cultural Muslims (whereas many Saudi girls in Canada remove their abayaat and niqab when they come here), d. it is nice to have another non-Saudi passport when travelling so one does not have to ask for visas as often, e. men studying for long times abroad simply find they cannot wait (sexually) for going home to marry (and so marry foreigners. My husband would add, some of the reasons suck, and are selfish, and COULD add to the high divorce rate, but his are a, b, and c.
Pixie- Ahhhh so that's why there are so many spinsters amongst Saudi women! I'm being sarcastic. Added to that, the government makes it harder for Saudi women to marry non-Saudis and their own male family members obstruct them from entertaining the idea of marrying a non-Saudi. I've gone off topic...but anyway...I eagerly await the results of this study!
Assalamu alai kum,
i am indian working in jeddah as network Admin,and Alhamdulillah i am safe and secure in this country.
I don t have words to express about you and your best work.
there are many Pros and Cons, and you'll find many critics critisizing your work. But, the way you trust allah, insha allah u'll succeed in your work.
critisizing saudi arabia and its people by western media, saying bad of its people by highlighting one or two incidents.
i would like to clear there mis-conception, that each region and religion, there are blacksheeps. due to few people you cant blame whole religion and country as bad.
"IT IS RIDICULOUS"
TAKECARE AND CARRYON BEST WORK.
Allah hafiz
Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh Headend-
JazakAllahu khair for your nice words of encouragement. I'm not above correction and if I ever venture into Saudi bashing on this blog, readers need to step up and put me back in my place...nicely of course :-)
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