DOHA: Qatar is taking a closer look at the possibility of making pre-marriage counselling mandatory for marriage in an apparent bid to check the soaring rate of divorce.
Courses may be designed by the authorities concerned in future for pre-marital counselling and men and women wanting to marry must attend those courses, albeit separately.
They must then obtain a certificate that indicates that they have attended the mandatory pre-marriage counselling course.
This certificate would have to be produced for a marriage to be registered by the authorities concerned in the country, reports Al Sharq. This would be like the mandatory health checks a man and woman must undergo in order to get married. The rule of compulsory health checks applies to both, Qataris and expatriates.
It is, however, not known if the pre-marital counselling rule would apply to both or only to the Qatari community since divorce expatriate communities is not so common. Al Sharq quoted reliable sources as saying that a draft law making the counselling mandatory for wedding is ready and has been forwarded to the authorities concerned.
The idea is to check the high rate of divorce in the country. The source told the daily that Malaysia has made such counselling compulsory for marriage and it has helped bring down the rate of divorce substantially.
“The rate of divorce in Malaysia is down between 40 and 70 percent after this pre-marital counselling law was introduced,” Al Sharq said. Divorce rate is similarly quite high in Qatar and other GCC states as well.
The counselling course might be designed to provide the man and woman practical insights into married life and the challenges that might surface up and how to make adjustments.
According to Al Sharq, there are some conservative families in Qatar that do not discuss details with their daughters after fixing their marriage.
Such unwanted trends in the community could be effectively checked if pre-marriage counselling is made compulsory for both, the prospective bride and groom.
Al Sharq said it talked to the Director of the Family Counselling Centre, known as Family Consultancy Centre, Mona Al Khulaifi, on the above issue. She said 219 divorce cases were referred to them between January and March of this year. Of these, bids for rapprochement were being made in respect of 107 cases.
Some 44 of the cases were finalised and no patch-up was possible, she said. Some 50 cases were already settled and estranged couples got back together.
Mahmoud Abul Ala, a marriage counsellor, said why divorce takes place is because the wife and husband do not know what their responsibilities are. This is particularly true of divorces that take place within five years of a marriage.
Prospective brides and grooms are not given an opportunity to see and know each other after engagement and that’s why the rate of divorce has been going up, said Ala. He lauded plans to make pre-marriage counselling compulsory for marriage.
The Peninsula
