Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Saudi Arabia: Programs to Prepare Women for Marriage Introduced | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- The steadily increasing divorce rate in the Saudi community has prompted a number of socially active organizations to form a program to prepare young women who aspire to marriage, training them in the requirements for a successful married life. Popular among the young ladies, the objective is to attempt to make their first marriage last forever.

Almass al Hajn, president of the advisory committee at the charitable organization Ashaqaeq in Jeddah and supervisor of the comprehensive preparatory program explained to Asharq Al Awsat that “the organization has implemented a similar program to fulfill the needs of the young women approaching the age of marriage with all the information they may require about the details of married everyday life and starting a new family.”

She stressed that, “the organization was careful to construct the program in a comprehensive manner to ensure its ability to address everything the young women might need to give them the confidence and the ability to handle all the requirements of married life.” Al Hajn added, “we paid special attention to the Islamic views and the jurisprudence of marriage applying it in a modern way that befits the psychological makeup, and the liberty in the mentality and the culture of the contemporary Saudi women.”

On the subject of starting the program in different provinces and spreading it so that a large segment of society who is on the verge of marriage can benefit from it, al Hajn believes that the program is simple one that doesn’t need a large budget to be implemented. She explained that all it really entailed was a meticulousness and organizational skills, which any organization can easily plan, adding “we are willing to cooperate with any organization that wishes to apply the program, such as schools for instance, and we can offer them all the available help if they need it. What really matters to us is to spread this outlook of preparation for marriage so that no girl accepts marriage until she’s taken the course because everyday life is different from a regulated, studied, and flexibly designed one in accordance with the needs of matrimonial life.”

Ashaqaeq organization will open its doors for registration to enroll over 35 girls, and will commence its new session next Saturday November 18th. This will be accompanied with the participation of a group of women specialists who are of renowned international scientific expertise and competence.

This follows the Ministry of Planning’s commissioned study which revealed that the divorce rates have risen during recent years by 20 percent and that 33 divorce cases are the daily average – which brings the number of divorce cases to 12,192 cases annually. The study also showed that Riyadh ranks first in the number of divorce cases followed by Jeddah.