Today, the Shura Council held its regular weekly session "Tamim bin Hamad Hall"Chaired by His Excellency Mr. Hassan bin Abdullah Al-Ghanim, Chairman of the Council.
During the session, the Council reviewed the request for general discussion submitted by a number of Their Excellencies the members, on "Increased divorce rates in society". At the beginning of the session, His Excellency the Speaker of the Council stressed the centrality of the family, which represents the basic building block in building societies. His Excellency referred to what was stipulated in the country’s constitution that "The family is the basis of society, and its foundation is religion, morals, and patriotism. The law regulates the means to protect it, strengthen its entity, strengthen its bonds, and preserve motherhood, childhood, and old age in its shadow.". He noted the Qatar National Vision 2030 emphasizing social cohesion and the need to maintain a cohesive and strong family that takes care of its children and is committed to moral and religious values and ideals. In turn, Their Excellencies members of the Shura Council pointed to the dangers facing family stability in the face of an increase in divorce rates, pointing out that the most common age group in which divorce occurs, according to statistics, is the youth group. He warned the members of the Council that divorce is one of the negative phenomena in society that should be curbed, because of the many problems that divorced persons and their children suffer from, which is reflected in the stability and progress of society. In a related context, the members praised the interest that the concerned institutions in the state attach to this phenomenon in order to reduce it through the implementation of rehabilitation programs for those about to get married, and other efforts .. pointing out the need to redouble efforts in this context due to the negative effects of divorce on the family, children and society as a whole. . They stressed the need to intensify awareness and educational campaigns on the importance of preserving the family entity, and to include this in the school curricula to provide young people with the knowledge, skills and behaviors that contribute to the formation of a cohesive and strong family. The members of the Council attributed the increase in divorce rates to several reasons, including poor awareness of the importance of the family, and the changes that occurred in society, in particular the spread of social media, which led to cultural changes that affected the family entity. Their Excellencies the members of the Council presented a number of solutions and proposals, the most prominent of which was reviewing the legislation and laws related to the family, working to ensure that the law guarantees the continuity of the marital institution, and taking studied measures to reduce the incidence of divorce. After extensive discussions by the members of the Shura Council, the council decided to form an interim committee to study this issue and submit its report to the council. During the session, the Shura Council also reviewed the report of the participation of its delegation, headed by Her Excellency Dr. Hamda bint Hassan Al-Sulaiti, Deputy Speaker of the Council, in the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Councils of the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the accompanying meetings, which were held in Algeria last January. The Council also reviewed the report of the Council’s participation in the high-level parliamentary conference on combating terrorism and preventing violent extremism and the role of African youth in this field, which was held in the Republic of Togo last January.
