LSC
2533 Research Methods
Findings
Report
‘What are the main causes of divorce among UAE
couples?’
(Research Topic)
Section
1 - Research questions
Primary Question
1)
What are the
main causes among UAE couples?
Sub-Questions
1)
Is divorce the
solution of the problem of the couple?
2)
Are women in the
workforce a major reason for divorce?
3)
Who are most
affected by divorce?
Section
2 – Background report summary
Cases of divorce in the
United Arab Emirates are alarming. An
article in “The National” issued on September 16, 2005 revealed that the
divorce rate in the UAE has reached 46%, the highest so far in the Gulf Region,
followed by Qatar with 38 percent. “
Meanwhile, a separate survey in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia reported that divorce rate
in GCC countries are increasing by 30 to 35 percent every year” (Kraideh, 2010).
According to Pickardt (2007), both UAE national couples who were
involved in divorce cases totaled 1,190, followed by the UAE husbands and
expatriate wives that stood at 420 cases, while those involving UAE national
wives and foreign husbands totaled nearly 110 in a matter of one year. The
same article said that among the Emirates, Abu Dhabi, the premier capital has
the highest divorce rate totaling 920, of which 412 involving UAE national
couples. Other emirates have the recorded divorce rates as: Dubai, 594 divorces
including 248 local couples, Sharjah, 541, Ajman, 361, Ras Al Khaimah, 193,
Fujairah, 125 and Umm Al Quwain, 49. (Kraideh, 2010).
The said statistics are alarming according to Marwa Kraidieh, a social
researcher at the Juma Al Majid Center in one of the center’s conducted seminars for education and awareness of divorce cases in the UAE. Along this line, this
work proposes a study to research the root causes of the divorce in the
country and to find possible solutions to hasten or decrease the alarming and
increasing rate because it will have an adverse effect on the UAE families in
particular and to the society in general.
Section
3 – Questionnaire results
I
made my survey questionnaires to be distributed to 25 participants who will
voluntarily participate in the study. They were males and females whom I
randomly gave my questionnaires in the malls and parks during weekends. My
questionnaire consists of ten items that aim to answer my primary research
question and sub-questions.
Primary
Question
§ What
are the main causes of divorce among UAE couples?
Sub-Questions
§ Is
divorce the solution of the problem of the couple?
§ Are
women in the workforce a major reason for divorce?
§ Who
are most affected by divorce?
The results showed that divorce is a
social issue and even is considered a world problem as well. In most cases, men are the main cause of
divorce. The findings revealed that 76 percent of the men or 18 out of 25 of
the respondents wanted divorce as compared with 24 percent of the women who
only wanted divorce. One of the important findings showed that 23 out of 25 or
92 percent said that divorce is possible to happen when women are in the
workforce. Simply stated, men do not want their wives to work probably because
their income is enough for their daily sustenance. Of the results, only ten
percent of men will allow their wives to work. In addition, 72 % of the
participants stated that children are most affected by the consequence divorce
while less than 30 % said that men are the losers while none stated that women
are losers at all. Surprisingly, the majority of responses showed that divorce
can be the solution to marital problems. More than half of the participants
showed that if the couples told their own respective families that they are
planning for divorce, more likely divorce will not happen. This was agreed upon
by more than one half of the participants. Another major cause of divorce is
the irresponsibility of the couple to attend to the needs of their children.
Finally, the biggest challenge of divorce is how to gain the same respect of
children to their parents.
Section
4 - Discussion of Results
The results of the
study confirmed the increasing divorce rates in the UAE. In fact, the
statistics of divorce in the country are alarming. On the issue of divorce, men
are most likely to start the issue of divorce as compared with women. Also, one
interesting finding is the fact that 92 percent of the men do not want their
wives to work, hence this could be a major cause of divorce. The researcher expects
that communication could be a major cause of divorce, but it was not mentioned
in the results, yet it is confirmed that the background information is correct
that children are the individuals most affected by divorce. Also, another
interesting finding revealed that women are not considered losers but men are
even mentioned as losers when divorce happens. With these findings, to minimize
the causes of divorce in the country, it is recommended for the college and the
council of this school that there should be education and awareness among
students inside the classroom on the sanctity of marriage. Divorce is not
always the solution to the problem and in fact it will aggravate the
circumstances because it would always have a negative impact on the children.
Lastly, if I were to conduct the same research in the future, I would attempt
to determine the empirical data of what really causes divorce in the country of the UAE only. Also I would like to find the records in courts if all couples that
divorce have filed cases in there.
