At forum in Doha, experts and researchers monitor state of marriage in Arab world



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Mohammed Al-Shiyazhi – Doha

The Arab family is in danger, a warning issued by experts and researchers at the Arab Family Forum on Marriage, in light of the conflicts and deep issues in which government policies have intermingled with economic, social and economic variables. cultural.

The two-day forum, which opened in Doha on Monday, aims to provide an interactive platform to discuss the findings of the Doha International Institute for the Family report “The Situation of Marriage in the Arab World”, with the participation of a constellation of decision-makers. , researchers, experts and representatives of civil society organizations and regional organizations.

At the opening of the forum, the participants painted a grim picture of the reality of the family in the Arab world, as they saw that the reality is much worse than what academic institutions or civil society organizations attempt. to monitor and diagnose, especially the very high rates of child marriage and divorce.

Among the most important points noted in the report is the return to child marriage, the rate of which has increased in conflict zones such as Yemen, which stands at 60%, and Syrian refugee women by 24%, and its effect on increasing problems and family disintegration. The report also discussed the high divorce rate and its relationship to domestic violence and its impact on children, as well as the stability of the institution of marriage.

The forum also discussed the new challenges imposed by modern technology and the media, which called on participants to sound the alarm about the negative repercussions of the technological revolution, and the need to adopt policies and plans capable of stopping the current state of deterioration and to approach it through more holistic approaches based on social and legal studies, as well as on psychology, anthropological research, jurisprudence, economics and the media.

In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, the executive director of the Doha International Institute of the Family, Sherifa Al-Emadi, affirmed that studies on the Arab family must continue to follow societal transformations and propose possible solutions that prevent what threatens her, taking into account the changes that wars and conflicts impose on family conditions and what they produce compulsions.

The research material for the report has been divided into sub-reports dealing with the marriage situation in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the Maghreb countries and the Arab Mashreq countries except for the Egypt and Sudan, for which two independent sub-reports were devoted, as well as an independent report on the case of Yemen, as well as a joint report on the state of Somalia, Djibouti and the Comoros.

True arab
According to the report which covered the entire Arab region, the status of marriage and family building was affected by fundamental variables, affecting marriage patterns, societal perception of celibacy and celibacy, high costs of marriage , lack of marital relations. and divorce, female labor and child rearing, taking into account the social denominators and diversities experienced by Arab and cultural countries, and the migration conditions imposed in a number of hot spots of tension and conflict. on building and continuing the family.

The forum aims to provide an interactive platform to discuss the state of marriage in the Arab world (Al-Jazeera Net)

According to Assistant Secretary-General, Head of Social Affairs at the League of Arab States, Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, talking about the reality of the Arab family should not remain an intellectual or cognitive luxury among elites and research centers and academics, while the Arab family lives in difficult conditions that threaten its existence and force everyone to engage in a deeply societal and institutional dialogue, this contributes to the development of clear Arab policies that preserve their existence and continuity.

In the Arab Mashreq, according to the report, several structural factors that affect the structure and forms of marriage are closely related, sometimes dictated by state policy in many Mashreq countries. Researchers believe that family formation has been greatly affected by poverty and difficulty securing housing, and displacement due to conflict, and the result is delayed marriage age and high rates of celibacy and decline. mixed marriage as a form of social coexistence between religions and sects.

As for the Maghrebian societies which are undergoing disparate social, economic and political transformations, the researchers found that the reality of the family is directly affected by legal and legislative reforms, and the response to the demands of gender equality, of rearranging roles. between spouses, strengthening of the role of women and decline of polygamy.

In Egypt and Sudan, the results do not differ much from other countries in their economic and social aspects, except for some specifics that affect laws and legislations based on local customs and traditions.

As for marriages in Somalia, Djibouti and Comoros, they are governed by social traditions and customs to the detriment of civil laws and government policies, which impose legal powers that violate women’s rights and widen the gap between spouses. in terms of equal opportunities at work and many rights. .

In the case of Yemen, which suffers from the destruction of institutions and the economy due to wars, the power of the family to marry women has not changed, given traditional tribal relations, with a certain disparity between towns and villages.

Wedding in the Gulf
The Gulf family before the discovery of oil is not the same after it, this is what the forum researchers saw, like the Gulf countries, which share a lot of cultural, social, economic and environmental commonalities, and in which it is possible to analyze the variable of the phenomenon of marriage, starting with the emergence of oil, and the opposite changes in the state of the family The Gulf region, which is transforming its way of life, based on limited traditional natural resources, in an era of luxury energy and living.

In addition to this also, the most important factors such as education, parental interference, social and economic disparity, marriage outside the kinship circle, the emergence of intermarriages of non-Gulf nationals and new types of marriage such as misyar and al -Musafar marriage (which foreign scholars resort to), which has imposed a new reality on institutions Legislative legislation in order to enact laws that regulate all of this and preserve rights.

The researchers suggested drafting an expanded Arab action plan in the light of the forum, based on the conclusions guided by the report, and helping to address the renewed challenges posed by globalization and modern media in particular, and to modify the virtual images of the reality of the family. .

More than one woman



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