Couples calling it quits for petty reasons, divorce rate rising in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, May 11 (ANI): The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) is alarmed at the rising rate of divorce in Putrajaya, a district in Kuala Lumpur. The divorce rate has been increasing by as much as three percent in recent times.

What is more disconcerting is that couples are separating for reasons as petty as their spouse forgetting to bring home their food of choice.

Jakim Family Development director Ghafani Awang Teh attributes this to the fact that these young couples stay in an age of instant gratification.

"I think it's the affliction of modern times, where everything can be found at the blink of an eye, that young couples see divorce as an easy way out without even wanting to try to work out their problems first," he told the New Straits Times.

He cited the case of a young woman who wanted a divorce after only three days of marriage as her husband had forgotten to buy the food she had asked for.

A study by Jakim revealed that 40 per cent of divorce cases in the last 10 years among Muslim couples were due to "irreconcilable differences".

Other contributing factors were financial constraints, spouses being irresponsible, polygamy, drug abuse and extra-marital affairs.

Ghafani believes that the sanctity of marriage is no longer intact the way it used to be, "The statistics are pretty worrying. It seems that young couples no longer place importance on the sanctity of the family institution. In the last 10 years, 180,172 divorce cases have been reported," he said.

Jakim has introduced a slew of initiatives to counter this phenomenon, including seminars, forums, conferences and workshops.

Besides Jakim, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry also views the high number of divorce cases among young Muslim couples seriously.

It said in a statement that from 2006, the ministry, through the Malaysia National Population and Family Development Board had implemented the SMARTSTART pre-marriage course for newly-weds and those who had been married for less than five years, the New Strait Times reports. (ANI)