Is our Arab world going through a major wave of social fragmentation?
A question raised by the continuous increase in divorce rates in the Arab world;
The phenomenon of divorce is no longer limited to newlyweds, but to old spouses, which has increased the rates of spinsterhood among men and women in an unprecedented way in modern history.
As if life between partners has become impossible in the Arab countries.
Although Egypt has the highest number of divorce cases, as about one million cases are reported annually to family courts in Egypt, and there are 240 divorce cases per day, at a rate of ten divorce cases every hour, according to a report issued by the Egyptian Cabinet Information Center, but Egypt occupies the second place among the Arab countries. In terms of the divorce rate to total marriages, the divorce rates have increased during the last fifty years from 7% to 40%, and the number of divorced women has reached three million.
As for the first place in divorce rates, it was Kuwait’s share. Despite the decrease in its population compared to Egypt, the divorce rate in the country rose to 48% of the total number of marriages, according to a statistics published by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Justice.
In third and fourth place, we find that both Jordan and Qatar have increased divorce rates to 37.2% and 37%, respectively.
Lebanon and the UAE were equal, despite the great economic and social differences between them in the divorce rate. The divorce rate in both of them rose to 34%;
It was followed by Sudan with a percentage of 30%, Iraq with 22.7%, then Saudi Arabia with 21.5%.
The population plays a clear role in determining these percentages, but the comparison between the number of divorce cases remains an indication of the stifling social crises that Arab societies are going through.
The following data video presents the number of divorce cases in Arab countries annually, between 1990 and 2020, and highlights this phenomenon affecting the lives of Arab peoples.