Spinsters World & Women Rights in Arab Land  

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23. June 2006

It’s women again!

A report published by Khaleej Times said that a survey conducted by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Planning reveals a shocking number of ‘spinsters’ across Saudi Arabia. To be precise, the exact number of the unmarried females has been recorded at 1,529,418. Now from the last census I could find, Saudi population has reached 22.67 million, including 6.14 million foreigners, which means that Saudis only are about 16.53 million, which also means that the 1.5 million spinsters form 9.25% of Saudi population, and knowing that the women count is around 8.25 million, this means that spinsters are18.5% of the Saudi woman. That is big, I guess.

The report also said that women are slowly overpowering men in population count and this is sure to create a problem in the future.

Abdul Aziz Al Nahari in the Arabic daily Okaz wrote an interesting note:

All wives in the kingdom — except my wife — should allow their husbands to marry a second, third or fourth wife if they are financially capable of doing so. They should be allowed (except for me) to have at least a second wife,” he said. “If these women allow their husbands to have a second wife, it would do a lot to solve the problem. Having a second wife is not cheating. I know I will face a severe feminist attack, but what can I say? Right or wrong, this is my opinion — if not my wife’s,” he added.

I think he just found an excuse

On the same subject, Maha Al Hujailan wrote in another Arabic daily Al Watan. She said:

The word ’spinster’ is considered an offensive term by many Saudi girls. It implies that young girls have a date beyond which they have expired. This expiry date is related to the young girl’s physical characteristics, which must be made use of in order to get her married. The word is also used to exert pressure on girls to marry; in theory, girls do not want to be called spinsters.

This is true. The Arab societies in general use the word in order to describe unmarried females negatively, and this is unfair. The tag kills the female future, as if she has caused the problem and as if she is really a bad girl. However, the problem in Saudi Arabia does not stop there. The rate of divorce, too, is increasing, contributing to the growing number of single women.

A report by the Saudi government said that the rate of divorce increased by 20 per cent in 2003 ALONE. A study conducted by Saudi academics has shown that in some Saudi cities, nearly 60 women get divorced every day.

Now, the most interesting part of the study is when knowing the reasons for this high rate of divorce. The study cites many causes, such as the lack of understanding among couples of their rights and family obligations; wives taking up jobs; the level of education of the married couple; lack of mutual respect between the couple; husbands taking a second wife or ogling women on the street, and husbands taking away the salary of their wives if they are employed.

To add more spices, another study conducted by vice-manager of educational affairs at the Saudi ministry of education, concluded that CHAT ROOMS and FORBIDDEN SITES on the Internet were the main cause for the increase in the rate of divorce in the kingdom (no wonder Google trend shows Saudi in the top list of search for sex).

Yet another report by the ministry of planning and national economy claimed that 65 per cent of marriages arranged by matchmakers failed, which is another problem, as we all know that it is nearly impossible for males females to even see each other in Saudi, so no wonder the percentage is high in this case.

Last but not least, it is worth to note that all of the above applies to most of the Arab societies, however in different ratios, but the main reasons are more or less the same; that is “women rights.”