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Divorce in Egypt every six minutes: report
by imung satriani | November 21, 2007 at 01:33 am | 702 views | 5 comments
A couple files for divorce every six minutes in Egypt, with a third of marriages breaking up in the first year, the press reported on Tuesday citing the state-run statistics bureau.Courts across Egypt rule on 240 divorces each day, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) was quoted as saying by AFP.
In most cases men take the initiative to file for divorce since under Muslim sharia law they are allowed to seek unrestricted legal separation from their spouses while women must face long court procedures.
In line with sharia, men do not need to go to court to file for divorce and can take up to four wives.
Egypt, home to 76 million people, now has 2.5 million divorced women.
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November 21, 2007 at 01:33 am by imung satriani, 702 views, 5 comments
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Comments (5)
at 09:52 on November 21st, 2007
I'm assuming the numbers have risen dramatically? What pressures do women face there while divorcing/after being divorced? I can't imagine it's all that pleasant...
at 11:58 on November 21st, 2007
The article seems to indicate that the women may never obtain a divorce, but the man gets to be legally separated, and marry more wives. It mentions that the court in Egypt makes decisions, but no reference to the number of divorces they actually grant. Based on that, I would assume that a larger percentage of women under Muslim Shaaria law, don't get legal status of divorce, and are shunned in their society.
at 13:54 on November 21st, 2007
The potential shunning of women in Muslim society under a strict interpretation of Sharia due to the stigma of divorce is mirrored by the experience of Christianity. Catholicism has promoted this stigma associated with divorce throughout history, and continues to do so. Divorce, a legal instrument, is not even recognized in the eyes of the Catholic church. The only recourse is annulment, and that is only applied if a marriage hasn't been consummated.
The stigma of divorce is not only peculiar to Sharia or Catholicism, or women in Christianity. King Edward of England, and an Anglican wished to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Warfield Simpson. He sought the approval of his family and the Church of England (the state religion in England) but was met with strong opposition, forcing him to abdicate.
The more recent history of the Western world has been underscored by secular principles where the rule of law, not theocracy, determined the legal implications of marriage and divorce, arguably lessening the stigma of divorce. The Muslim world is not without its modern and secular example as well. Turkey, a fiercely secular Muslim society, has laws that apply equally to men and women in its constitution, and calls for the equal distribution of assets, and rights to children, should a marriage dissolve.
Egypt and other conservative Christian nations (Ireland, Poland, the Philipines, to name a few) could learn from the Western and Turkish examples by pursuing a strictly secular agenda to remove the stigma of divorce and theocracy driven agendas from their societies.
at 14:43 on November 21st, 2007
imung satriani, thanks for this--very interesting statistic. I wonder how this stacks up against other countries in terms of divorce rate. Good stuff!
at 19:26 on November 21st, 2007
Thanks for posting this news imung satriani, we've never heard some big things going on in Egypt these days. But my personal take on this, I was really saddened that marriage that is supposed to be sacred is just almost treated like a game that any one can just quit and look again for new playmate. I think this is all along rooted to their religious faith. Marriage is not like a hot porridge meal that when you feel not good to your taste you will throw up or spit.