Bahrain's divorce rate has more than halved over the past five years, a report said, adding that the number of people getting married has increased by a third during the same period.

There were 335 divorces last year, which is a massive reduction from 702 divorces in 2008, according to a report in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The number of people getting married last year rose to 6,311, which was up from 4,600 in 2008.

Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa announced the figures in parliament yesterday (June 11). He said marriage counselling programmes were a major factor in slashing the divorce rate.

"Our efforts to help couples resolve their problems without going to the final step and getting divorced are reflected in the figures," said Shaikh Khalid.

"There were 4,815 marriages and 717 divorces in 2009, 4,755 marriages and 608 divorces in 2010 and 5,784 marriages and 533 divorces in 2011."

The minister said programmes that raised awareness of the negative impact of divorce were being conducted in religious centres and places of worship, in addition to family guidance offices.

"Divorce is mainly related to financial or cultural gaps between couples, especially individual status and the ambitions of one party - who might see their partner as no longer a match," said Shaikh Khalid.

"For that we need more lectures to offer advice to all those wishing to get married. We are open to suggestions about how to provide service in that regard because we don't want couples to break up at any stage."

He was responding to a question by Al Asala Bloc president Abdulhaleem Murad on divorce and his demands for the ministry's family guidance office to be restructured. Murad suggested the Malaysian example should be followed, after it reportedly resulted in slashing the divorce rate from 34 per cent to 3 per cent in five years. – TradeArabia News Service