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Rabat – Recent statistics show that divorces are increasing alarmingly in Morocco following the 2004 revision of Moudawana or the family code.
Mohamed Ben Abdelkader, Morocco’s minister of Justice shared statistics on the number of divorces during a seminar on Tuesday.
The official said that the number of final divorce decrees was estimated at 7,213 in 2004. By 2009, the number rose to 31, 085.
Throughout the years, the number of final divorce decrees from courts witnessed alarming increases, moving from 44, 408 in 2014 to 55, 470 in 2019.
The number of “repudiations,” an Islamic dissolving of the marriage that originally came exclusively by decision of the husband, also amounted to 26, 914 cases, of which 7, 213 resulted in a divorce judgement.
Following the revision of the Moudawana family code in 2004, Morocco expanded repudiation law to allow both men and women to unilaterally request a dissolution of their marriage .
Under the revised family code, a husband is no longer entitled to divorce his wife through repudiation.
Abdelkader said that divorce cases moved from 26, 914 cases in 2004 to 25, 852 in 2018 and rose to 27, 149 cases in 2019. Around 78% of the cases were consensual divorce.
Divorce cases exploded in 2020, due to economic and personal consequences resulting from the COVID-19 crisis which has strained relations between couples worldwide.
Morocco’s economic metropolis Casablanca alone experienced 15, 956 divorces last year.
Read Also: Casablanca Experiences 15,956 Divorces Amid 2020 COVID-19 Measures
Moroccan prosecutor Malika Achkoura said earlier this year that courts in Casablanca experienced a rise of requests for divorce last year.
She said that the local judiciary had been able to decide on 99.3% of consensual cases despite the COVID-19 crisis.
She added that a large number of divorce cases were proposed by mutual consent of both partners.
The court official attributed the increase in the city’s divorce-rate to the restrictions stemming from the lockdown measures against COVID-19.
Around 50 divorce cases in Casablanca were due to physical abuse, while two cases were caused by financial neglect. Around 101 cases were due to the husband’s decision to abandon their families.
