4 November 2009,
Participants at the seminar, organised by the department of Islamic affairs and charitable activities, said young couples needed to understand better what marriage entails.
Uomaimah Al Ani, Head of Research and Studies Department, Family Development Centres, told Khaleej Times, “Both parties should not hurriedly tie the knot.” They need to know each other better and see if they can make a successful marriage.”
Ani said nearly 84 per cent of divorce cases registered in Sharjah from 1992 to 2006 were by former divorcees.
“This shows how divorce is totally misunderstood as a remedy — despite being religiously hated — for some critical cases,” Ani said.
“Marriage contracts should clearly spell out the number of ex-marriages as those divorce ‘addicts’ have not learnt a lesson from their repetitive broken marriage(s).”
Referring to some examples of husbands divorcing their wives via SMS or e-mail, Yusuf Al Sharif, Legal Consultant and Vice-President of the Sharjah Consultative Council, recommended that divorce procedures should take from eight months to one year to discourage some people from irresponsibly ending their marriage on trivial grounds.
“Being lenient with such careless people is one of the main reasons behind divorce,” Sharif said.
“Parents should spend more time to know better about the man proposing to marry their ‘precious’ daughters.”
Sharif added, “A divorced woman is entitled to a temporary maintenance while processing divorce procedures,” Sharif said, “Judges, however, do not rule a standard alimony in similar cases despite being in the same court or emirate.”
Recommending field research on the impact of divorce in the UAE, Dr Sultana Uthman, a psychotherapist and head of Community Mental Health Centre, Dubai Police, said those approaching marriage or divorce need to go through qualifying courses.
“Such training will help them to act properly as couples and parents, and pay due care to their children after divorce,” Uthman said.
Uthman said personal status laws need to be reviewed to stop those seeking personal gains out of divorce, such as a young divorcee’s right to have accommodation.
“Marriage contracts need to be revised and include strict conditions that make divorce harder,” Uthman said.
Abdul Aziz Al Hammadi, senior family counselor at Dubai Courts, said a rise in the number of divorce cases has been reported in Dubai over the last three years.
“While 618 break-ups were recorded in 2006, the divorce cases went down to 594 in 2007, yet shot up again to 656 in 2008,” Hammadi said.
Hammadi then said a hike in family disputes and violence was also noticed in the emirate over the same period.
“The family litigations registered in 2006 hit 2,085, yet the number went up to 2,456 in 2007, and 2,615 in 2008. Two thousand and eighty five violence-related cases were filed in 2006, mounting to 2,456 in 2007, and 2,615 in 2008,” he said.
Alaa Hafez, a family arbitrator at Dubai Court, believed that non-adherence to the teachings of Islam is to blame for around 98 per cent of divorce cases registered.
“Youth being unaware of marriage responsibilities especially from the age of 16 has to go through intensive marriage awareness courses,” Hafez added.