Report on the high rate of divorce and the marriage of minors  Nasiriyah -in the province of Dhi Qarrate

Report on the high rate of divorce and the marriage of minors Nasiriyah -in the province of Dhi Qarrate

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Through the survey, conducted within the search that was pocessed in the Personal Status Court in Nasiriyah, and as we are one of civil society organizations working in Iraq legally and

are approved to cooperate with the court we could get the exact percentage of marriages and divorces of minors for 2015. In fact, the court was strangely crowded with a great number of minor divorcees who did not pass on their marriages more than 3 months, and at the same time there are plenty of girls, in the same ages, waiting for the completion of their marriages transactions. According to the court, the marriage ratio since February until December was 5185 marriage status while divorce cases reached 1963 case and more than 1800 cases are still at the hands of the social researcher. In our visit to a number of legitimacy offices near the court, we meet the offices' owners and we asked them about the nature of their work and about marriage and divorce mechanism as well as about the age they are dealing with in their offices for both boys and girls. Their responses about the last question were different .

Hamid Almusharfawi; the marriage official we interviewed; revealed that he deals with would be married couple of the age 14 years and older according to the Iraqi Personal Status Law, which allows the marriage of girls at this age provided they have the consent of a male guardian. The official also explained that given their lack of experience, these young couples are often easily and negatively affected by their surroundings ; namely, their family and friends. Thus, the coulpe, that do not realize that marriage is a constant contact between the partners, end by separation as a result of domestic intervention from the part of the couple's family and especially the pression of the husband's mother on her daughter in law as far as the issue of pregnancy is concerned. Such pressions and others usually lead to complete separation. The marriage official added that,in 2015, he had in his office 75 cases of divorce; either of retroactive or dislocation type , and that he had more than 150 marriage case, mostly at the age of 14 years and above. The high divorce rate, according the official, is also due to the existence of legitimate but unauthorized offices that deal with the customers from a purely materialistic point of view instead of caring for the human or religious side .

The owner of the other authorized office for marriage contract; Ahmed Aziz Assafi; has made it clear that he is dealing with any age, even if it is contrary to the law of personal status because the girl usually comes with a male guardian who is basically responsible for her, taking into consideration that even the physical built often allows her to marry, even if she is only between 9-14 years old. He also revealed that marriage among minors often end up in failure after two or three months for lack of wisdom and proper behavior that should ensure continuation of this marriage. Most of the marriage, mentioned so far, always occur between relatives and especially between the cousins. Besides, there is another kind of marriage linked to inheritance, especially if the girl is an orphan , so she is often a subject of exploitation by her uncle or a relative under the pretext of guardianship. Needless to mention that the high rate of divorce is often caused by the non- compatibility between the couple, although Islam has encouraged marriage as a natural pracess in life. However, it seems that globalization; featured in internet and mobile phones; and its entry randomly to modern modern life has contributed to a high rate of divorce.

Then I met one of the owners of a xeroxing office that is close to the court, and he explained that he clones, on a daily basis, divorce papers for more than 15 cases of minor couples.

The causes of underage marriage: -

. L.1 Customs and traditions prevailing in rural communities.

. L.2 Inbreeding.

. L.3 Inheritance.

. L.4 Parents fear of deviation.

. L.5 Multiplicity of females in the same family.

. L.6 Poverty.

. L.7 Illiteracy.

. L. 8 Religion and Shara.

. L.9 Family problems and parental divorce.

. lL. 10 Lack of cultural and intellectual awareness.

actors affecting the underage marriageF:

. L. 1 Economic factors.

. L. 2 Social factors.

. L. 3 Scientific factors.

. L. 4 Physical factors.

. L. 5 Family factors.

. L. 6 Religious factors.

. L. 7 Psychological factors

Research problem:

Underage marriage is among the social phenomenon that have not been fully studied in Arab societies, particularly in Iraq, where these cases increase day after day without any real signs that may contribute to an effective cure for this situation, especially when compared with other communities. Indeed, this study is concerned with studying underage marriage phenomenon given the fact that this is an issue that concerns directly women who constitute half of society and therefore must be treated appropriately. This adequate treatment will prepare her as a mature mother that will educate future generations to be aware of the most important principales of community awareness to build a civilized country.

Aim of the research: -

The research on the theme of minor marriage (child marriage) did not come from a vacuum but it emerges from a phenomenon that has been commonly witnessed in the Personal Status Court in Nasiriyah . Besides, there is growing interest in these types of researches on the level of Iraq because of its negative effects on society and the importance of this issue lies in the following:

. L. 1 Identifying the circumstances that led to the increase in underage marriage and characteristics associated with education, employment and age groups in which the phenomenon has spread remarkably .

. L. 2 Knowledge of personal and social aspects that lead to the growing of marriage of minors and their negative impact on society is growing.

. L. 3 Identifying some of the social, economic and psychological factors that lead to the increase of minors' marriage .

. L. 4 Identifying the education and employment variables for the age group involving minors.

. L. 5 Effects on the family and the community.

Conclusions and Recommendations: -

. L. 1 The report revealed that the majority of young couples are between the ages of 9-17 years. During the last 10 months in 2015, their total number almost reached :5185 marriages taking place in the Personal Status Court in Nasiriyah. This illustrates a continuing rise in the number of underage marriage cases which represent approximately 40% of the total marriages.

. L. 2 It is made clear that the intellectual level has a special effect on the samples mentioned In fact, whenever the intellectual level raises, it helps reduce incidences of early marriage, especially for minors. And when the intellectual awareness is lower, there are more cases of minors' marriages. This is due to the fact that there is great impact of education on women as it raises the latter's level of thinking and their ability to take their own decisions concerning their social life.

. L. 3 It is evident from the study that underage girls become housewives at this age while they did not even complete their elementary and middle school, and this obviously affects the extent of their intellectual maturity

. L. 4 It is lucid clear from the study also that the increase in cases of marriage of minors during the ten months, was accompanied by an increase in divorce cases occurring for the same sample. This is due to the fact that couples discover after marriage that they are not

ready for marriage and they can not keep any harmony between them given their young age and the lack of adequate training about the formation of a real stable family .

earch questionsRes: -

Q1 : What is the relationship between education and employment variables, and the age of child marriage,?

Q2 : What are some of the social, economic and psychological factors that lead to child marriage at this age.?

Q 3 : Does early marriage, a marriage of underage ends up by an early divorce.?

Q4 : how should this situation be handled.?

Q5 : Can this marriage be successful through forming well-functioning families.?

Q6 : What are the effects on family and community as a result of this marriage.?

Spatial geographic area: -

Because the study focused on the phenomenon of child marriage and given the fact that this issue is of remarkable importance; then we need to run field visits to a number of courts concerned with personal status within the scope of our province. Indeed, the study took place in the Personal Status Court in Nasiriyah, and in a number of legal offices as follows:

. L. 1 Statistics were taken from marriage contracts Chamber with the information available at the Chamber of Social Research, which had its importance in the formation of our study in a simplified principal way for the reliability and validity of the data as the research used data and statistics in our court and these data are reliable for the lack of manipulation in the preparation of cases of minors' marriage. Besides, there is great precision in terms of increased attention to such cases, which led to an attempt to conduct a specific study to determine the reasons for this increase and its impact on society and ways to address them.

. L. 2 Computer data collection . In fact, statistics on marriages of underage girls were kept in private files in the computer to take advantage of them to solve the problem.

Conclusion :-

This report tackled some factors that lead to the marriage of minors because this phenomenon produces negative effect on the girls.Our research revealed that the social, economic and psychological factors are interdependent and complementary factors and their lack or stability increases underage marriage cases. Women are the most affected so our attention in this research was essentially on women because they are suffering from the negative aspects of this marriage and divorce than men. We hope that we have been able to highlight on this phenomenon, which has spread recently in Dhi Qar - Nasiriyah.