NUMBER OF DIVORCES RISING
Azaraimy HH

YOUNG Muslim couples aren’t the only ones who are “diluting” their marital bonds, the not so young, too, have been on the prowl in search for new life partners in the country.

According to figures released by the Syariah Appeal Court, some of them remarried after filing divorce papers, while the rest who were well off took on a second spouse or even a third.

The number of people above the age of 55 (pensioners) who remarried last year has leapfrogged over the years — 50 to more than 80 last year. “This is not surprising,” observers said.

The report shows that there has been an increasing number of Muslim couples in Brunei who have had some trouble in paradise. The number of new marriages that did not even make it past the first anniversary in 2006 was 29. In 2008, however, that figure skyrocketed to 48.

On the other hand, the number of married couples who broke up after celebrating their first anniversary jumped from 36 in 2006 to 54 within two years.

Domestic abuse, loss of love for one another and misunderstandings between couples and their relatives are just some of the common reasons why people in Brunei seek divorce. In some cases, financial problems are to blame for failed marriages.

However, in Islam, filing for divorce can be a complex process for Muslim couples, as there are five `hukum’ (categories) of divorce that apply to different situations.

Aside from divorces, the figures in the report indicated that more people, especially young couples, were open to the idea of marriage.
According to the report, the number of total marriages leaped by eight per cent from 1,775 in 2006 to 1,928 in 2007. In 2008, that figure jumped by as much as 12 per cent (2,165) taking into account of marriages across the board of all ages.

The number of people who tied the knot before the age of 24 jumped from 491 in 2007 to 551 in 2008.
On the other hand, the number of people who married before hitting the age of 19 was 63 in 2008. This figure is a relatively high if you take into account the size of Brunei’s population. This figure was only 52 the previous year.

Apparently, love doesn’t stop for people who are over 50 years old in Brunei. According to the report, the number of people who got married after they hit the big “50″ rose from 54 in 2006 to 72 in 2007. In 2008 that figure continued to rise to 82.

Interestingly, the report showed that most males who married in their 20s were between the ages of 25 and 29, while most of the wives were between the ages of 20 and 24.

This indicates that most grooms prefer their wives to be younger than them.

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