Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH — A study, conducted by the National Dialogue Center (NDC), has found out that about 85.4 of the divorce cases among the Saudi families are caused by lack of communication between married couples while lack of dialogue among them was responsible for about 49 percent of the divorces.

The study, which covered all the 13 administrative regions, said about 82.9 divorces resulted from young men and women not shouldering their responsibility toward the marriage.

The people surveyed were in agreement that about 54.1 percent of the divorces happened due to the wrong choice of partners while about 81.2 percent of them warned against intervention of the family members and other relatives in the private life of the couple.

About half of them believed that financial problems were a major cause of divorce while 66.4 referred it to the attempt of one of the married couples to control the other.

The study, published on Saturday by local daily Al-Madina, said divorce cases in the Kingdom were mushrooming like uncontrollable cancer and that there were about five divorce cases every hour with an average of 129 divorces a day.

About 83.8 percent of the people who were covered by the survey believed that addiction of drugs and alcohol was a major cause of divorce while 93 percent of them were unanimous that children were the main victims of the separation between the father and mother.

The study called for enlightening the society about married life and the adverse consequences of divorce. It also called for the establishment of government centers to provide consultations and said young couples should be enlightened about the duties of everyone of them before they tie the knot.