A lower divorce rate among newly-wed Bahrainis over the past four years has been attributed to an awareness campaign on rights and responsibilities in marriage.


A recent study conducted by the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry showed a 47 per cent decline in the number of people getting divorced last year when compared to 2010, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.


Out of the 6,344 couples who married last year, 500 were divorced in the same year – a rate of 79 divorces per 1,000 marriages.


This is a drop in the divorce rate of almost 60 per cent when compared to four years previously, when 4,814 couples married and 947 divorced during the same year – a rate of 197 divorces per 1,000 marriages.


For comparison, in 2011 5,828 couples were married and 952 divorced, in 2012 6,465 married and 993 divorced and in 2013 6,156 married and 715 divorced.


Supreme Council for Women (SCW) acting media director Mohammed Jassim Al Hammadi told the GDN that the marked decline in divorces could be put down to marriage lectures that have been held in both private and public schools.


“For the last three years, specialists have worked hand-in-hand with the SCW to organise school visits and teach senior school students their rights and responsibilities and how to choose life partners,” he said.


“We trained the specialists to deal with students of that age because sometimes it is hard to convince them and understand the way they think and speak.


“We clearly explained to them that marriage can be difficult because most high school students seem to think that married life is perfect and that they won’t face any problems.”


Al Hammadi said that the majority of divorces were caused by the husband not spending enough money on his wife, while verbal and physical violence was the second main cause.


“Of all the cases that we have come across, whether in our Women’s Support Centre or our Family Reconciliation Office in court, we have noticed that the main reason women want a divorce is because their husbands don’t spend enough on them, while the second reason is violence, whether verbal or physical,” he said.


“We have been working on a new strategy to combat violence that will soon be referred to the Shura Council so that they can introduce a new law with harsh punishments.


“We currently don’t have a strict law to punish those who use violence against their spouses and we are looking for a new law that can protect domestic violence victims in Bahrain.” - TradeArabia News Service