Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Proposal, Engagement, Marriage and Divorce - Part IV

The Divorce (Part IV)

Divorce is one of the worst things ever in my personal opinion. I think when anyone is to be married, it has to be forever. The partner has to be chosen carefully as the one and only for the remaining years of one's life.

In the West, divorce is a very hard thing. In the Middle East it's very easy to get a divorce unless the couple is Christian.

West

Divorce in the west is a very hard thing to get. There has to be many settlements depending on the laws of divorce. Also the religious aspect of divorce is very complicated as they advice the couple to try counseling then they ask different opinions then the couple have to wait for the approval. It's very complicated.

Yet, they don't choose there life partners wisely. Even some law firms have compelling advertisements for them such as "Life is too short. Get a divorce". Divorce rates are increasing each year. This is all due to making the wrong decisions and choosing the wrong life partners. The good thing about a divorced man or woman in the west is that none of them is talked about. They can normally go on with their lives and have different partners.


If there are kids involved, the governments will check both parents' statuses; financially and emotionally. After the routine check, the court claims the custody, that can be appealed over and over again.

Middle East

In the middle east, divorce is pretty easy for Muslims because it only takes one word from the husband to the wife for the divorce to be completed. Of course nowadays it's more about the papers than the words, but in Islam, once the word is said, they are officially divorced. The same western routine is applied on Christian married couples in the middle east.

The main problem about divorced individuals in the middle east is that when people know they're divorced, very few will accept their friendship or companionship because for a girl being divorced it's a shame, and for a guy being divorced it's a security alert. So it is exactly the opposite of the west; easy to do and hard to deal with.

When kids are involved, there are three possible scenarios; the kid is young so they stay with the mother; the kid is above 10 years old and the father is the keeper; or in some cases the kid can have the option to choose. Of course this happens if there is a custody battle, but normally the kids have equal time for both parents under the agreement of the parents; words and not official.

Nowadays, the concept of divorce is more accepted than before in the middle east because it's happening at a much higher rate than before. Increasing exponentially instead of gradually.