Marriage -Divorce in Qatar ratios 3:1? Wow. There were 3206 marriages this year but almost 1000 divorces also took place.! Read on…
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The rate of divorce continues to be high in Qatar. Figures released by the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) show that while 3,206 marriages were solemnised last year, a little less than a 1,000 divorces took place.
Citizens account for a large number of divorces. Some 2,013 marriages took place in the community last year whereas 721 divorces were recorded, taking the marriage-divorce ratio to almost 3:1.
There were only 1,193 marriages recorded in the various resident communities in 2007 but the divorce rate was also high at 276.
According to social activist and businessman, Hassan Al Jefairi, Qatar has one of the highest rates of divorce in the world, more than even that in Europe. “The divorce rate here is 38 per cent, and not 33 per cent, as claimed by some reports,” he said. “The rate of Europe is 32 per cent.”
Al Jefairi attributes troubled marriages to arranged weddings and family interference in the private affairs of a couple.
The bride and groom hardly know each other before marriage. They can at best see each other but they cannot talk and interact to know each other’s habits since talking and meeting before marriage is a taboo.
“So when they begin living together after marriage, contempt for each other begins,” he said. “I have been writing to Qatar University authorities to make co-education compulsory so that men and women can freely interact with one another and pick life partners of their choice.”
“This is the best way to ensure that marriages work and do not fall apart, as has been happening here now.”
Citizens like to marry within their respective tribes or family circles, so if there is a beautiful and homely girl, the chances are that a close relative would ask her hand for his or her son. People outside the family circle of the girl would not come to know of her, so her marriage outside her tribe or family is not possible, argued Al Jefairi.
According to him, one of the negative fallouts of fellow citizens marrying within their tribes and family circles is an increase in the number of children with special needs.
The ratio of children with special needs is also one of the highest in the world here due to marriages taking place within blood relatives, he claimed.
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