Soaring Saudi divorce rate sparks new law

Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council is considering implementing a law to halt the surging numbers of divorces in the kingdom.

Talal Bakri, head of the committee for family affairs at the council, told media the authority is set to begin deliberations on various provisions of a draft divorce law, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Monday.

Bakri said some husbands were resorting to reckless pronouncements of divorce, and not informing their wives, who were then “shocked” to receive divorce papers.

The law would prevent husbands from pronouncing divorce in the absence of their wife, while divorce would only be valid if it was registered in a courtroom in the presence of the estranged couples.

The number of divorces is increasing in the kingdom, with nearly 62 percent of marriages ending in divorce.

According the newspaper, there are more than 1.5 million spinsters in Saudi Arabia - meaning women who have missed the ‘optimum age’ of marriage.