Divorces in Saudi: Trivial reasons for break-ups

A Saudi man divorced his wife in court after she tried to test his love by asking him to divorce her. Another couple went to court over the frame of their air condition set while a wife sought divorce because her husband swore at her favourite football team.

According to the Saudi Arabic language daily 'Al Madina', a woman asked her husband to go with her to court, where she shocked him by asking for a divorce.

When he asked her why she wanted a divorce, she smiled and said she just wanted to test his love for her, the paper said.

“The husband did not like the joke. He instantly divorced his wife and left his wife in shock at the court house,” it added.

The paper said the incident was included in a report issued by the courts department in the Western Red Sea port of Jeddah. It quoted the report as saying early 80 per cent of the divorces in Saudi Arabia were for trivial reasons.

The report cited another case involving a husband and his wife who were watching a local football match.

It said that the husband favoured one team while his wife supported the other, adding that the wife went mad and immediately asked for a divorce when her husband swore at her team.

Another couple had a heated argument in their bedroom after his wife asked her husband to fix the frame of the air condition set.

“The couple went to court on the next day but they were referred to the guidance and reconciliation committee,” the report said.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s highest divorce rates as nearly a fifth of the marriages do not last, according to official data.

The oil superpower recorded more than 33,900 divorce cases in 2014.

“There were 33,954 divorce cases in the Kingdom in 2014, nearly triple the marriage cases which stood at 11,818,” the justice ministry said in a report.

It showed divorces in 2014 were nearly 32 per cent higher than in 2013, when they stood at 25,583 cases.
Saudi Arabia, with a population of around 21 million Saudis and nine million expatriates, has one of the highest divorce cases in the world relatives to its population.

A large number of the divorce cases were a result of snoring by husbands, their lack of affection towards wives, the widespread Misyar marriage, the influence of western media and movies on Saudi women, social and tribal barriers, and other factors.

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