Ban on seeing bride key cause of divorce in Saudi

Saudi Arabia maintained its position as having one of the highest divorce rates in the world because many families are still sticking to the tradition of not allowing men to see wives before marriage, a newspaper said on Saturday.

The Gulf kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter and largest Arab economy, recorded in excess of 26,000 divorces in 2010, the highest rate in many years, the Saudi Arabic language daily 'Al Riyadh' said.

Quoting religious officials, the paper said there were many causes for divorces in Saudi Arabia, including failure by husbands to respect their wives, mistreatment of them and disregard of their rights.But the paper said wives are also to blame for such a phenomenon as some of them “fail to obey” their husbands and others are ill mannered or simply ignore the rights of their husbands and houses.

“Another key reason for divorces is that many husbands are not allowed to see their wives before marriage,” said Sheikh Hamoud Al Daajani, a member of the Saudi government Fuqh (jurisprudence) committee.“The bad relationship between the wife and her husband’s family is also another factor as many wives live with their husband’s family in the same house.”

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.