The Muslim News

Strait Times:

DIVORCE rates among Muslims here have risen since the 1970s, to top those of Indonesia and Malaysia where divorce rates have actually fallen since the 1980s.

Last year, there were about nine divorces among every 1,000 married Muslims. This was about three times that for Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley and about five times that for Jakarta, says Professor Gavin Jones of the Asia Research Institute, who specialises in demography.

Prof Jones credits this in part to new marriage laws being enacted and divorce procedures being tightened in Indonesia and Malaysia.

He is due to present his paper, Not When To Marry But Whether To Marry, which describes broad trends in marriage and divorce in East and South-east Asia, at the one-day Asia Trends Conference tomorrow. p> He said a key factor affecting divorce trends in Singapore could be that Malays here are 'a minority group in a highly meritocratic society with all the pressures it entails'.

His suggestion has already provoked some spirited disagreement ahead of the conference, titled Untying The Knot: Ideal And Reality In Asian Marriage.

National University of Singapore sociologist Stella Quah said that in her comparative study of families in Asia last year, she found a high degree of correlation between economic development and divorce rates.

'Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, which are highly developed places in Asia, have higher rates of divorce. It's not surprising that Singapore Malays too have a higher rate of divorce than their counterparts in less developed countries.'

The director of PPIS-Jurong family service centre, Mr Mohd Ali Mahmood, agrees.

He said: 'The higher divorce rate among Singapore Malays is likely to be due to the pressures of living in a highly developed country. Couples have a tougher time balancing material pursuits with marriage demands.

'Another could be procedural efficiency - divorce cases here are processed more quickly now.'

He added: 'I would disagree that being a minority is one of the factors causing higher divorce rates - unless a study of divorce rates of Muslim minorities in highly developed countries can prove otherwise.'

Email this story to a friend | Printable Version