Manama: Lawyers and sociologists in Kuwait have called for rewriting the divorce laws after official figures indicated that 42 per cent of marriages ended in separations in 2009.
"There are many reasons for the alarming increase in divorce rates, but the Kuwaiti law is also to blame," lawyers said. "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," Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah quoted the lawyers as saying.
Laws and legal texts that do not place family bonds and cohesion at the top of the priorities should be amended as they are often the direct or indirect causes of high divorce rates, the lawyers said.
"The phenomenon is widespread mainly among newly-married couples, which denotes that they were not ready for marriage. Their lack of experience and their inability to appreciate the commitments and responsibilities associated with the marriage are the main cause of this phenomenon," the lawyers said.
The justice ministry said that it recorded 5,965 divorce cases in 2009 for 14,155 marriages. "This gives us a divorce rate of 42 per cent, one of the highest in the world," the ministry said.
Sociologists said that the high occurrence meant a whole generation would not grow up in the stability and security provided by an intact two-parent family.
"Children are the main victims of such a divorce rate. They are made to pay high prices for their parents' faults and this should not be the case. Parents may re-marry and start new lives, but the children have already been deeply affected," they said.
