Reasons for divorce
The questions in the field study on the subject of divorce resulted in a number of observations based on the answers of the respondents. To start with the reasons for divorce, physical abuse came top of the list for the female group in the sample (60 per cent of the female respondents), followed by financial difficulties, and thirdly failure by the husband to fulfil his family responsibilities especially towards the children.
No religious reason was given as a reason for divorce, and there were other factors that had no impact on the decision to divorce, notably marital betrayal (i.e. adultery). There was no case in the sample of adultery by the wife, and adultery by the husband was not mentioned, perhaps not being considered as an important reason for divorce in Egypt.As for process, there were reports of the wife’s family, her father and mother, participating in efforts to prevent divorce, while the participation of the husband’s family was very limited. This is due to the fact that it is the wife’s family that feels the embarrassment of their daughter’s position in front of the society' if she is divorced. In most cases where the wife’s family intervened in this regard, it was the father who undertook the efforts at reconciliation or at pressurizing the husband. Furthermore, most of the cases of divorce in the sample had taken place at the wish of the husband, although there were a limited number of cases at the petition of the wife; in such cases the husband usually refused, so there was no way around going to court. Additionally, a large proportion of the sample held that divorce was void if uttered verbally in a moment of haste and anger {iddliτab').
Regarding the husband’s responsibilities after divorce, the majority of the female respondents held them to be maintenance of the wife, maintenance of the children and playing a part in bringing up the children. Financial responsibilities (maintenance) were ranked highest in the answers of the majority of the sample (men and women) while the child-rearing and emotional responsibility were second in importance.
In most of the divorce cases, the maintenance agreement that the parties had made was not kept and the two parties went to court for a ruling on the matter; however, a small proportion of the respondents reported that amicable informal sessions with the participation of relatives helped to solve the maintenance dispute. In most of the cases, the mother got custody of minor children from the marriage, with the father taking over in a small number of the cases. Where the father took over custody of his minor children, it was either the father or his sister who took care of them. Factors that were taken into consideration in deciding who would take custody of the children were, first, what the law said on child custody and, second, financial factors (the capabilities of the parties); the choices of the children played no role in identifying which of their parents would have custody.Conclusion
In this chapter we have reviewed the results of the field study involving a sample of the public, in which we concentrated on marriage as a social process and the way the parties involved view marriage and their rights and responsibilities. These perceptions reflect substantively on the positions the public takes on the law, subjects dealt with in the following chapters.