Rise In Divorces In Bangladesh: Is Only Covid-19 Lockdown Responsible?
Covid-19
Pandemic Has Brought Many Negative Impact On Social, Cultural And Economic Life
Of The Individuals.
Main
Points:
1. Psychological
illnesses have also seen a rise during the Pandemic.
2. Incidence of
divorce has risen in Bangladesh during the lockdown.
3. Rise in divorce was also caused by the
awareness of women about their right to seek divorce.
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New
Age Islam Staff Writer
28 June
2021
Symbolic Pic courtesy Daily Bangladesh
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The
Covid-19 pandemic has brought many negative impact on social, cultural and
economic life of the individuals. Domestic violence has increased and
psychological illnesses have also seen a rise. One of the ill-effects of
Covid-19 restrictions is a steep rise in the cases of divorce, particularly in
Bangladesh.
According
to the government statistics, the incidence of divorce in Bangladesh has risen
in Bangladesh during the lockdown. During the period between January and April
2021, a total of 4565 applications for divorce have been submitted. Of them 70%
divorce applications were submitted by women. This shows the changing attitude
of women towards divorce in Bangladesh. The reason cited for this increase is
the economic and financial repercussions of lockdown. Domestic violence is also
one of the reasons for increased rate of divorce in Bangladesh. During January
and April, 71 women were killed by their husbands. In Dhaka 38 divorces take
place every day.
But only
lockdowns cannot be held responsible for the increase in divorce in Bangladesh.
The government statistics show a rise in trend in divorce for the last 7 years.
The number of divorce applications has risen by 34% in the last seven years.
The rate of divorce rose by 17% in 2019 in comparison to 2018. This means the
rise in divorces was a phenomenon even before the lockdown. During the
lockdown, the reason of divorce may be financial hardships but before that many
other factors also played their role in divorces.
Social
analysts say that in Bangladesh woman empowerment has played a major role in
the change in the attitude of women towards marriage. More and more women are
becoming financially independent. They work and earn their own livelihood.
Earlier women would be solely dependent on their husbands and so suffered all
the humiliation and torture silently. But with girls being more educated now,
awareness about their conjugal and family rights has grown among them. They now
protest against male chauvinism and domineering behaviour of their husbands.
The rise in
divorce was also caused by the awareness of women about their right to seek
divorce. Earlier women in Bangladesh thought that only their husbands could
divorce them but now they are aware that they can seek divorce under the Act of
1939 through the intervention of the court. The result is that in 2020 alone,
1194 divorces took place every month. In 2019, only 920 divorces took place
every month.
Earlier,
the reason for the rise in divorce was mainly mental and physical torture of
the wife and dowry demand by husband. The bride would tolerate all the other
family differences like bad temper of the husband, domineering behaviour of the
husband, drug or wine addiction of the husband or misbehaviour of the in-laws
as long as her life and security was not at risk. She would swallow all the
humiliation for the sake of saving her marriage. But with greater literacy and
economic empowerment, women now demand an honourable life in her in laws, good
treatment from her husband and in-laws, characterial integrity of her husband
and above all, financial security of her husband. Since, very few men and
in-laws families can fulfil all these criteria, more and more women file for
divorce in Bangladesh today.
This is why
divorce rate is higher among urban educated families and lower among common
people.
The
question therefore arises: Is legal empowerment of women a bane for women itself?
Has economic empowerment made women more intolerant? Are educated and rich
urban couples more irresponsible in terms of their conjugal behaviour? Has
personal ego become more important than their responsibilities towards their
children and family?
Being the
citizens of an Islamic country, the couples should have made a more pragmatic
approach to resolving their issues. Islam aims to bring economic prosperity not
at the cost of family values. Islam teaches couples to make sacrifices,
preaches tolerance and stresses on mutual respect. But in Bangladesh, economic
prosperity seems to be bringing negative impact on family and society.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/bangladesh-lock-down-divorce-covid/d/125028
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