Uncontested divorce is seeing a growing trend in recent years in the country. Perhaps sociologists and lawyers believe that this method of ending a marriage is better, but when the rate of such divorces goes up, it means a departure from the normal standards of social and legal practices.
Uncontested divorce should be seriously analyzed and researched, said Baqer Sarukhani, sociology professor at the University of Tehran.
In many cases, uncontested divorce reflects the couples’s tendency to relieve themselves of all responsibilities instead of trying to solve problems. In other words, people’s tolerance for unhappiness has been reduced to zero or diminished significantly. Successful marriages too have misunderstandings, especially in the early years of marriage, he noted.
According to statistics most of the divorces in the country occur in the first five years of marriage, which is evident of couples’ lack of tolerance in marital life.
The Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, recently urged judges to cut down such divorces with the help of family elders, and by giving couples more time to think about their decision. However, studies indicate that in some cases divorce certificates have been issued by the courts, sometimes in less than 15 minutes, Fararu Website reported.
According to the National Organization for Civil Registration, annually more than 30,000 people dissolve their marriages in Tehran.
In the past year (ended March 20), 27,320 divorces were “uncontested”, in other words 90% of the divorces are ‘uncontested’.
Common Reasons
In uncontested divorces, the two parties come to an agreement on the property, children and financial support. When both sides agree, approval of the divorce is almost guaranteed and the divorce certificate is issued quickly by the court. So couples have little time to think or change their decision. Later most of them also regret getting a divorce.
A recent survey found that the most common reasons Iranian women cite for divorce include being insulted or beaten by their spouses, interference by husband’s family in their marital life, husband’s infidelity, cultural conflict, big age gap and forced marriage. The reasons Iranian men cite are lack of interest in wife, spouse’s brashness, incompatibility and irrational expectations.
Divorce is the second most worrisome social problem after drug addiction in the country. The average national divorce rate stands at 16.3% or 16 divorces out of every 100 marriages. This figure may appear optimistic compared with the individual figures for some provinces. For instance, Alborz Province has a divorce rate of almost 50%.
