Cairo - The

repercussions of the Corona pandemic cast a shadow to the fullest extent, as the number of marriage contracts and declarations of divorce in Egypt decreased, and decreased in both by more than 5%, according to the latest official statistics.

According to the annual bulletin of marriage and divorce statistics for 2020, issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the number of marriage contracts reached 876,015 contracts in 2020, compared to 927,844 contracts in 2019, a decrease of 5.6%.

At the level of divorce, the number of her announcements reached 213,950 cases in 2020, compared to 225,929 cases in 2019, a decrease of 5.3%.

As usual, the percentage of the decrease in the number of marriages was more in favor of the urban population and less in the countryside, in contrast to the increase in divorce in the urban area than in the countryside, albeit at a rate not exceeding 4%.

With regard to the marriage rate at the level of the Republic (the number of marriage contracts that took place during the year per 1000 population in the middle of the same year), it reached 8.7 per thousand of the population in 2020, compared to 9.4 per thousand in 2019.

As for the divorce rate, which is the total number of divorce cases (advertisements + final divorce rulings) that took place during the year per thousand of the population, it reached 2.2 per thousand in 2020, compared to 2.3 per thousand in 2019.

Divorce every two minutes

In a report entitled "A divorce every two minutes... a warning sound threatens families with disintegration... and the solution is in youth rehabilitation centers for marriage," on the government's Al-Ahram portal website, and he indicated the need to pay attention to the alarm bell led by official statistics.

The report stated that divorce rates increased recently, reaching about 213,000 cases in 2020, at a rate of one every two minutes, which confirms that this phenomenon has increased in recent years and represents a threat to social reality.

There are thousands of uncountable reasons for divorce, unlike marriage, according to experts (Al-Jazeera)

With the accumulation of the number of divorce cases annually, and the number of spinsters added to it each year, the number of women without a man (divorced women, spinsters, widows) increases to 24 million, according to the statements of cassation lawyer Issam Ajaj, for every 10 women are supported by only 3 men.

In its latest statistics, the Central Statistics Organization revealed that more than 13.5 million people over the age of 30 have not been married, including 2.5 million young men and 11 million girls.

And experts in sociology and economics confirm, in statements to Al Jazeera Net, that the reasons for the increase in divorce cases are difficult to determine precisely;

Because it is many and complicated other than marriage, which is greatly affected by the economic situation of the country as a whole, and the extent of its prosperity from its downturn.

What is the state's responsibility?

Professor of Sociology, Mohamed Mohieldin, expressed that the problem is not in the numbers or rates of divorce cases, as there are countries in the region where such cases increase, and they are “considered normal in light of the social transformations in Egypt, and they do not raise concern, and they rise and fall according to material economic and other social factors.” related to the status of women, etc.

In his statement to Al Jazeera Net, Mohieddin believed that the lesson in preventing the existence of the causes of divorce to reduce it and contain its impact and not make it accumulate, and in stimulating the economic situation of young people to increase marriage rates, and opening the general climate in all directions for civil society institutions to exercise their role in awareness, enlightenment, guidance and providing a helping hand .

According to experts, the economic situation of young people must be stimulated to increase marriage rates (Al-Jazeera)

However, the sociologist adds: But what happens is that the state, in my estimation, (manufactures) the necessary conditions for the occurrence of divorce, and the inability of young people to gain independence on their own, and the ability to marry, and thus rebuild societal strength, and the work force is threatened in Egypt in light of the current policies led by the policies of financial institutions International.

Corona time

The repercussions of the Corona pandemic on marriage and divorce were not lost, according to the economist Abdel Nabi Abdel Muttalib, who confirmed that “the economic dimension in most of life’s problems, including marriage and divorce, exists, and it was more evident during the Corona crisis, and the impact may extend as the crisis continues.”

The repercussions of the Corona pandemic cast a shadow over marriage in Egypt, according to the economist Abdel Nabi Abdel Muttalib (Al Jazeera)

And he saw, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, that the decline in marriage contracts by more than 5% is considered acceptable in conjunction with the Corona crisis, which led to a decline in even the economic growth rates of countries, which resulted in an increase in the number of the unemployed, a decline in opportunities for work contracts, and the elements of establishing a marital home, Thus, "postponing the decision to marry the two parties."

With regard to divorce, Abdul Muttalib indicated that there are thousands of reasons that cannot be counted unlike marriage: social, economic, religious and psychological factors, and no one can identify or collect the reasons, “but I think there is an important reason related to the speed of the decision to marry, with reference to Part of the divorce cases are caused by the deteriorating economic situation of the family.