Divorce Rates in the United Arab Emirates

This assignment analyzes the rising divorce rates in the United Arab Emirates. It examines various contributing factors, such as societal pressures, family involvement in marriage decisions, lack of mutual understanding between spouses, and insufficient age for marriage. The assignment proposes solutions like empowering couples through consent-based marriages, promoting female education, and strengthening existing legal frameworks to regulate marital contracts.

Running head: SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORIAL SCIENCE
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORIAL SCIENCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
The following report gives a glimpse at the life of the women in the United Arab Emirates where
most of the women are still deprived of their individual human rights. The report broadly
discusses the life of the divorced women in the country and deals with the causes that are
responsible for such mishaps. The report goes deep down into the source of the issue and
presents an overview of the livelihood of the women of the nation. The report also contains a
self- reflection on the issue and recommends certain major steps that can enrich the state and
conditions of the life of these women in the country.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Results of the Study.............................................................................................................3
Description.......................................................................................................................3
Understanding..................................................................................................................5
Influence..........................................................................................................................5
Predictions.......................................................................................................................6
Self-Reflections...................................................................................................................6
Observations....................................................................................................................6
Solutions..........................................................................................................................7
Measures..........................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The United Arab Emirates although is one of the wealthy nations of the world due to its
oil and natural gas resources is facing a huge number social problems with the evolution of time.
With the advancement of technology, the country has developed a lot in the recent modern eras.
At the same time, the rate of social problems is increasing with the progress of the country. This
report discusses one such major rising issue that the country is facing in the 21st century. The rate
of divorce in UAE is rising in an alarming rate where the impact of Islam is strong.
The following report highlights the causes in the increase of the rate of divorces in the
families UAE where the ethics of Islam, the strong bonding of the family and the sense of
tradition are regarded as a value worthy for raising family. The report which has been made
based on the interviews that were taken while performing a research reveals that most of the
divorce cases are resultant of the modernization of the country.
The report concludes by discussing several issues that led to the cause of divorces. The
self-reflection part of the report analyzes the exchange of social theory about divorces which are
at times considered as a social stigma. The report broadly states why the option of divorce is
sometimes considered as the only option for some women in the country.
Results of the Study
Description
While conducting the interview, there were several issues that came up as common
factors leading to the divorces in the UAE. Some of these common factors that can be stated are-
interference of the family into the matters of relationship between husband and wife, early
marriage, domination of the husband over his spouse, marriage at an earlier age, sexual affairs

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prior to the marriage, domestic violence and at times the social stigma of being a divorcee (Al
Gharaibeh & Bromfield, 2012). According to a report of Sidiya (2010), the percentage of
divorces to that of marriage in the UAE was 25.6% in the year 2008. This has raised an alarming
situation for the government of the country to look into the matter deeply to reduce the number
of divorces in the country (Al Gharaibeh, 2015). The cases of divorces are raising an alarming
situation in the country as divorces in certain families of Gulf is not at all permissible where the
strong bonding in the family is considered as most valuable. Though the Islam religion permits
the case of divorces under certain circumstances the families living in the region of Gulf
considered it as a social taboo and is not accepted. On the other hand, in the marriages of Emirati
family, it is mostly between the cousins and is considered as ideally consanguineous
arrangements among first cousins. This leads to the cause of tensions across the tightly bonded
family.
Conversely, in the Arabian and Islamic world, divorce is a recent problem that has
popped up in the recent years. However, it was already in the country as the Arabian societies
continued to switch from traditional, closed agrarian to modern and urban ones. In the Arabian
region, the divorces are mostly due to the physical abuse and torture that are done by the male
members of the family, intake of alcoholism, cases of infertility and at time problems with
family members living in a joint family (Bromfield, Ashour, & Rider, 2016). This is largely due
to the lack of awareness regarding the responsibilities after the marriage, parental and family
interference in the matters of negotiations among the couples. Another chief reason that came up
was the huge age difference between the husband and the wife. The educational inequality
among the couples also plays a major role in the case of divorces in Saudi Arabia. According to a
study of Al Qaisi and Al Majali (2000), the excessive parental intrusion, lack of compromise on

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important issues, misunderstanding of marriage responsibilities contributes to the case of
divorces. Other than this early marriage, short term engagements and communication skills
immensely affects the life of the couples and gradually this led to the divorce (Khamis, 2016).
Understanding
The rapid changes in the life of the Emirati families have greatly changed the view and
outlooks of marriage. In most of the traditional Emirati family, the marriages are mostly arranged
by the head of the family at a young age (Anser, 2013). According to the customs, the first
cousins would marry each other and they will stay in the stretched family home. This is done just
to save the outflow of the family wealth and here a demand of dowry is a must. After this the
couples especially the wife is persuaded to conceive a child just to secure her status and position
as the wife of the family. This is where the life of the woman ends as she now gets engaged in
the family affairs (Al-Darmaki et al., 2017). This opportunity is utilized by the husband to led
life with other women and the government also permits it as the law say that a man can marry up
to four women at a time but his desire for sexuality must be limited within his first wife. Other
than this there are problems of alcoholism and also there are cases where the wife is not treated
properly causing lack of attention, desertion, polygamy and irresponsibility associated with the
matters of obligations within the family (Rapanta, 2013). Apart from this since most of them gets
married at an early age, the desire to know the partners rises even before the marriage. Domestic
violence is also a significant that has been mentioned by many respondents as they said that they
were at times hit, insulted and cursed by their husband which forced them to leave their in-laws
house.

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Influence
In a country like UAE where the people mainly believes in religion, the cases of divorces
must be handled with utmost care by the government to increase the social status of the women
in the country. The government must take certain major steps to eradicate the stigma of divorce
from the society. It is important that the government of UAE must abolish laws that permits
polygamy and talaq system in the society (Wang, & Kassam, 2016). Apart from this, the
government must raise awareness of women empowerment in the country by educating the girl
child. It is also the responsibility of the parents to educate their daughter in spite of forcing them
to marry at an early age. It is the duty of the parents to make a girl child self-sufficient so that she
can become independent in her life. The parents in spite of thinking about the financial benefits,
must think about the future of their daughter before arranging their marriage.
Predictions
In the recent eras, with the development and modernization of the technology, the rate of
divorce has increased in the country. Since the country is still developing and progressing, there
is a huge change in the recent lifestyles of the people of the country. As a result of this the
behavioral changes among the young people has resulted in certain changes in their socio-
cultural characteristics (Bromfield, 2014). With the span of time it can be predicted that these
demographic and cultural changes will increase the rate of divorces in the future of the country.
Self-Reflections
Observations
While conducting this research and interviewing program, it has been observed by me
that the rate of divorces is becoming a grave concern for the government of the country. Even
though in the past it was not an option for leaving unhappy marriage, currently, the option of

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divorce has come up as a reason to escape from the torture of the marriage life. In this research,
what I have observed is most of the early marriages are arranged one and they are done between
the members of the same family (Bromfield, 2014). Also, at times the interference of the parents
and the other relatives of the family in the matters of marriage leads to the divorce of the
couples. The other reasons that are mentioned are the lack of mutual understanding, trust and
compromises between the husband and the wife can make the marriage an unsuccessful one.
Solutions
The best solutions here according to me should be that the decision of the marriage must
be taken by the husband and wife instead of the father negotiating the whole process. The first
and the most crucial step that can be implemented to check the rate of divorces is to stop the
early marriage. Marriage must be a matter of mutual consent that is only possible if both the
husband and the wife reach a certain age to take the charge of responsibilities of the marriage.
Another preventive step that can be mentioned is the education of the women (Bromfield, 2014).
If a girl is educated, then it becomes possible for her to take the charge of certain issues instead
of depending entirely on the husband.
Measures
The UAE government has taken steps to control the rate of divorces in the country in the
recent years. The government has implemented laws that regulate the cases of marriage in
country. These laws although implemented are not effective enough to control the rate of
divorces in the country. The government has made a rule that before the marriage the husband
and the wife must sign a contract that states their mutual understanding of the responsibilities
after marriage.

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References
Al Gharaibeh, F. M. (2015). The Effects of Divorce on Children: Mothers’ Perspectives in
UAE. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 56(5), 347-368.
Al Gharaibeh, F., & Bromfield, N. F. (2012). An analysis of divorce cases in the United Arab
Emirates: A rising trend. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 53(6), 436-452.
Al-Darmaki, F. R., Ahammed, S., Hassane, S. H., Seif Abdullah, A., Yaaqeib, S. I., & Dodeen,
H. (2017). Antecedents and Consequences of Marital Satisfaction in an Emirati Sample:
A Structural Equation Model Analysis. Marriage & Family Review, 53(4), 365-387.
Anser, L. (2013). Divorce in the Arab Gulf Countries. A major Challenge.
Bromfield, N. (2014). Interviews with divorced women from the United Arab Emirates: a rare
glimpse into lived experiences. Families, Relationships and Societies, 3(3), 339-354.
Bromfield, N. F., Ashour, S., & Rider, K. (2016). Divorce from Arranged Marriages: An
Exploration of Lived Experiences. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 57(4), 280-297.
Khamis, F. G. (2016). Multilevel Mixed Analysis and Mapping on Divorce Problem in UAE.
Rapanta, C. H. R. Y. S. I. (2013). How do young Arab Emiratis argue? A pilot study.
In Argumentation, rhetoric, debate and pedagogy: Proceedings of the 2013 4th
International Conference on Argumentation, Rhetoric, Debate and Pedagogy (pp. 67-78).
Wang, Y., & Kassam, M. (2016). Indicators of Social Change in the UAE: College Students’
Attitudes Toward Love, Marriage and Family. Journal of Arabian Studies, 6(1), 74-94.

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