“3o2balek”, “Congratulations” and “Mabrook” are words that have become an integral part of our everyday lives, because each one of us knows this close friend or this cousin who decided to get married. However, rarely do we ask ourselves the question of whether or not those acquaintances are actually doing the right thing by choosing to get married. Is it peer pressure? Is it the fact that wearing a ring has become a fashion statement or rather a statement that you fit in within the Egyptian society that accepts no more single ladies.
Perhaps the marriage crises that used to take place amongst poorer segments of the Egyptian society has taken a rather different shape; it is not anymore a crises that results from lack of financial capabilities, it is a crises because it has become a must to get married early enough to be accepted by society. If you asked someone today what he perceives as the ‘right’ age for getting married, they would tell you the proper age is 21 or maximum 24 years. The same person would have given 25 to 29 as an answer five years ago.
This reminds me of a quote by the British novelist Jane Austen in her masterpiece “Pride and Prejudice” that “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. The question remains whether or not this is actually a truth and that the only way to cope with this truth is to get more and more people married as soon as possible with no regard for the consequences thereof.
One of the disadvantages of such hasty steps as getting married is the rise of divorce rate in Egypt. According to the Daily News Egypt, nearly half of the married couples end up divorced within the first two to four years of marriage. Even with the relatively new divorce law being introduced in Egypt, enabling women to be the one divorcing her husband, it remains a struggle for them to maintain their financial status and the wellbeing of their broken family, because they are pretty much giving up their financial rights in return for their freedom. One can say they are starting over from point zero, which is not exactly a success given the material losses a woman has to leave behind.
Given that most marriages end within the four years period, one of the neglected consequences are the children that are left behind, embracing a life they are not accustomed to. Some people might prefer getting a divorce rather than living under the same roof and constantly showing their children how miserable their lives together is going.
The fact that a woman can divorce herself in the Egyptian society is not necessarily an easy matter, considering that, regardless of the progress that has been achieved on the case of women rights in Egypt, one cannot deny that most Egyptian women in Egypt still depend heavily on the financial and emotional support provided by their partners. The option of divorce cancels out all this support - a step not all women are exactly taking into consideration when signing their divorce papers.
With the rise in the number of early marriages amongst higher social classes in Egypt, and the resulting divorce cases that take place at equally early stages of their marriage years, divorce has become an alarming sign, given that raising children or supporting oneself will take double the effort for a twenty year old Egyptian divorcee. Not only that, but the image of a twenty year old divorcee in our society, even though occurring more frequently, remains an unfamiliar phenomenon in the eyes of most of us, no matter how hard we try to portray otherwise.
I am not in any way undermining the advantages of divorce as an righteous option for Egyptian women. However, the fact that this right is gradually made available does not mean that we should abuse it, simply because by abusing this right we might be also abusing the parties that are involved in this process. To all Egyptian women, there is no rush, even if it seems like it. No, you do not have to get married because that is what everyone else has been doing lately. You only take this step when you think you are ready for it, its ups and most importantly its downs. There is no one standing behind you with a knife in his hands forcing you to get married, so think twice before taking the decision to start your marriage unless you know you will not be taking another one to end it.