Divorce cases in Damascus and its countryside governorates increased to 100 cases per day, Ahmad al-Bakri, the first general counsel in Damascus announced.
According to the local newspaper, Al-Watan, this rate forms an unprecedented dangerous increase in comparison with previous years.
Bakri attributed this increase in divorce cases to current living conditions Syrians are expereincing. Many husbands have become unemployed, causing wives to request divorce as a result of a lack of basic needs.
"Divorce is a social case more than a legal one and thus it can’t be controlled totally,” Baki said, pointing that legitimate courts try to limit the cases by giving the family the chance to reconcile.
On the other hand, professor at the Damascus University law faculty, Mohammad Kheir al-Akkam said he considers the increase in divorces as a result of the absence of social parity between man and woman. This, according to Akkam, includes both psychological and physical life conditions, pointing out that many parents misjudge the principles of social parity.
"The Syrian personal status law cannot manage divorce cases, especially arbitrary divorce, since it is a purely social case”, he said, adding that engagement was a means to find flaws in the man or woman and never reach divorce level.
“The wife has the right to ask for divorce if the husband is not capable to provide the basic elements of life, including shelter, food and clothing. In these circumstances, many husbands are not able to provide these elements which has led to the increase in divorce."
The Syrian Personal Status Law differentiates between divorce, repudiation and division. Divorce, according to the law, is an individual decision made only by the husband. When the judge finds him arbitrary in his divorce, he judges for an indemnity for the wife, taking into consideration the husband’s financial status.
Repudiation is a contract between the couple, whereby they agree to end the marriage contract with an allowance paid by the wife or someone else to the husband. Therepudiation takes place in front of the judge, before or after having sexual intercourse
Division, meanwhile, is a judge’s decision and it is a right for both the man and the woman, if one of them finds a single sustainable flaw in the other, whether before having sexual intercourse (without knowledge) or after it. He or she then has the right to nullify the marriage contract.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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