CAIRO - Rates of marriages in Egypt in 2009 were fivefold those of divorce in the same year as 759,000 marriages were registered compared to 141,500 divorces, an Egyptian official said. "In 2009, 78 marriage contracts were signed per hour against 16 contracts for divorce," said Abou Bakr el-Guindi, the head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). El-Guindi added in a press conference that the rate of marriage in Egypt was 9.9 per one thousand citizens as divorce cases hit 1.4 per one thousand. "Marriage rates in Egypt are higher than in most countries where such rates never exceed five or six cases per one thousand," said el-Guindi, whose agency is specialised in compiling statistics about everything in Egypt, including inflation and population. He added that kholaa, an Islamic way of divorce in which a wife relinquishes her financial rights and gets a court ruling, was the main reason for divorce Egypt. "Also the rates of marriage in the countryside were twofold the rates in urban areas," the official said. Marriage and divorce have surfaced across Egypt, a country with a population of 80 million, as a major social problem, due to the rising divorce rates over the past five years. In Egypt and other Islamic countries, couples often become engaged at a very early stage in relationships in order to be accepted in the society, unlike in the West where lengthy relationships usually precede marriage. "Marriages among university graduates registered only half per cent of the total marriage contracts, the lowest rate. While marriages among technical school graduates were the highest at 39.3," el-Guindi said. With rising prices and no increase in salaries, the issue of marriage will continue to be at the forefront of many debates, according to experts. Egyptians want marriage, but without the proper financial means to achieve it, many are turning to longer stints as bachelors, they add.
