By: Sandy Hossam
A divorce is an unfortunate event that is on the rise in Egypt. The National Council for women reported 198,000 divorces among 913,000 recorded marriages, averaging a 21.7% divorce rate this year only.
In an attempt to decrease the alarming divorce rates, Egypt recently established an anti-divorce program in universities to increase awareness on how to handle marital conflicts.
The Beginning:
Egypt will be launching an anti-divorce program under the name of Mawadda, -which means affection-in September, the beginning of the academic year. This campaign comes in alignment with President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi’s call to reduce the country’s high divorce rates.
The program will basically revolve around marriage, how to choose your ideal partner and how to overcome marital struggles. As a matter of fact, Egypt’s church and leading Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, will also be taking part in this project.
According to Amr Osman, Advisor to the Minister of Social Solidarity, the program will be mandatory for university students to graduate.
The Application:
The program is still in the trial phase, with 21,000 young people have received training in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said governorates where most divorces occur.
When in full force, the program will also be targeting 900,000 young people between the ages of 18 to 25 who are mostly college students. It will also be targeting married couples who have their conflicts reported to the family court.
Claimed Reasons for Divorce:
Egypt’s Social Solidarity Minister, Ghada Wally, explained last year that the high divorce rates are mainly due to the economic pressures and low employment rates. However, divorce could also be the result of violence, not knowing your partner well, disappointments that were followed by huge expectations.
Our Expectations:
It’s an undeniable fact that such a move is actually great but it is also not success guaranteeing. Clearly, college students need such awareness. However, they might not be the reason for the failure of their future marriages. The way they were raised has a lot to do with it too. It’s also important to highlight that if someone isn’t mentally or emotionally stable for marriage, awareness sessions won’t be the only ideal solution.
