Kuwait reeling under high divorce pressure

Manama: High number of divorces, in Kuwait, is likely to continue after the authorities said that they recorded 3,153 cases in the first six months of this year.

The total number of divorce cases in 2009 was 5,965.

In contrast, the number of marriages could go down after the authorities recorded 6,914 marriages in the first six months of the year, compared to 14,155 in 2009.

"The number of marriages and divorce cases gives us a divorce rate of 42 per cent, one of the highest in the world," the ministry said last year.

However, according to Waleed Al Mawash, the head of legal authentications, only five per cent of the divorce cases announced this year were related to the marriages in the first six months of 2010.

"The high rate of divorces covers marriages contracted over the years," he said.

Kuwait has one of the highest divorce rates in the region.

In May, several lawyers and sociologists in Kuwait called for the rewriting of divorce laws after official figures indicated that 42 per cent of marriages ended in divorce in 2009. Lawyers said that although there were several reasons behind the alarming increase in divorce rates, the Kuwaiti law was a major factor.

Main cause

"Under the law, a divorcee gets a salary, a house, a car and a maid and at the same time, she is free of all marriage commitments," the lawyers said, quoted by Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah.

"The phenomenon is widespread mainly among newly-married couples, which denotes that they were not ready for marriage. Their lack of experience and inability to appreciate the commitments and responsibilities are the main cause of this phenomenon," the lawyers said.