20% of annual marriages in Egypt end in divorce: Cabinet

CAIRO – 29 October 2018: Nader Saad, the Egyptian Cabinet's spokesman, promoted for the government's new initiative to limit "alarming" divorce rates in Egypt, saying that about 20 percent of annual marriages in the country end in divorce.

In an interview with "al-Mowagaha" (confrontation) program on Extra News, Saad said that of Egypt's annual 980,000 marriages, 198,000 marriages end in divorce.

Saad said that 38- 40 percent of the mentioned divorce cases occur in the first three years of marriage, pointing out that divorce spreads among youth with ages from 25 to 35 years old.

The government's Mawada (affection) initiative aims at keeping the unity of Egyptian families, and reducing divorce rates. Saad said that the initiative will be launched soon, adding that it will be submitted to President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in November.

Sisi alarmed by high divorce rate

In his speech in January 2017, during the anniversary of the National Police Day, Sisi said he was informed by the head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) that about 40 percent of annual marriages in the country end in divorce after five years.


“[Can’t] we issue a law stipulating that divorce becomes invalid except in the [presence of] the marriage official to give people [who decided to get divorce] the chance to rethink their decision?,” Sisi said, calling for invalidating oral divorce.

Sisi justified his proposal, saying that the invalidation of oral divorce will help protect families from being affected by only two words that a husband may say while infuriated. In Islam, if a husband voluntarily told his wife “Anti Taleq” (you are divorced), then the wife is considered divorced unless he was threatened or compelled to say so.
The Grand Mufti said earlier in October that at least 4,200 questions about divorce are sent to Dar al-Iftaa monthly, a figure that corresponds to an increasing rate of spousal separation in the country. Dar al-Iftaa is a religious governmental institution that issues fatwas (Islamic opinions) to educate Muslims.

Marriage, divorce statistics

Divorce rate in Egypt is witnessing a noticeable increase compared to marriage rate, according to a report issued on February 18 by CAPMAS.

It was stated that divorce rate increased by 6.5 percent from December 2016 to December 2017. The number of divorce forms issued in December 2017 reached 14,000, compared to 13,000 during the same month in 2016.
The marriage rate witnessed a relative increase as well, but the rate of separations was much higher than any other measured by CAPMAS. The marriage rate increased by 4.3 percent in December 2017, compared to the rate measured in December 2016.

The report concluded its statistics by mentioning the exact numbers of divorce and marriage papers issued during 2016 (from January to December).

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Additional reporting by Egypt Today Staff