DOHA: Divorce cases linger in courts longer than expected and during the litigation period women and their children are not entitled to any financial support from their estranged family.
If a wife has filed for divorce, the husband would usually try to delay court proceedings by not accepting summons or by producing false documents to prove that he is in debt so he cannot take the responsibility of his children.
Family disputes, including divorce cases and cases for custody of children, normally take more than a year for the court to decide.
Then, a case is to be filed for the execution of court ruling and that takes more time because proceedings in the matter are based on commercial and civil regulations.
So a family dispute or divorce case is finally disposed of in years, not months, and this negatively impacts women, children and their families.
Lawyers say that if family disputes are to be decided in a short time in the interest of the women and children involved (since they suffer a lot due to delays), a procedural law is to be introduced.
A procedural law consists of a set of rules that govern the proceedings of the court in civil, criminal and administrative cases.
Such a law can help shorten the duration of a lawsuit filed for divorce by either party (man or woman) or filed for the custody of children of divorced or separated parents.
Lawyer Yusuf Al Zaman told local Arabic daily Al Raya in comments published yesterday that considering the above problems there is the need for a special family law.
“Most victims of a delayed court verdict of a family dispute are women and children,” said Al Zaman.
Another lawyer, Ali Isa Al Khulaifi, said that sometimes court rulings in divorce cases are delayed because the judges set up a committee that would try for rapprochement between litigating husband and wife.
Then the case is referred by the court to the Family Consultancy Centre (FCC) for reconciliation, he said. This all takes time.
However, during the litigation the women and the children are not entitled to any financial support from their estranged families, he said.
Dr Moza Al Malki, prominent psychologist, said that one good thing about the present family law was that the parent who doesn’t have the custody of his or her children is allowed to see his or her children at the FCC at regular intervals. “Earlier, the parent used to meet his or her children at the police station. This used to have a negative impact on children’s psychology,” she said.
The Peninsula
