It's a daily flow at the Bir Mourad Raïs court [commune de la banlieue sud d’Alger]the back and forth for divorce proceedings is seamless. Conflicts in couples differ, but the verdict is the same: divorce.
All the discussions we have had with certain women are similar. The reasons for breakups are mainly found in betrayal, lies, social networks, financial difficulties, lack of transparency or because couples form too quickly.
In Algeria, during the first three years of marriage, three out of four couples divorce. The National Statistics Office (ONS) recorded 91,402 divorces out of 278,664 marriages in 2023, a rate of 33.5%.
The Algerian woman frees herself
But what is the scientific explanation for this increase in divorces? Saliha Ouadah, university professor, researcher in demography and urban sociology, director of the Lasap laboratory at the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics (Enssea) and also associate researcher at the University of Tours, sees the situation as a sociological and urban sociology angle. There are a lot of divorces and there will be more in the future.
First, women of working age or in full career today are those who took the risks during the period of terrorism [la décennie dite “noire”, 1992-2002] to complete their studies, and have made great efforts and sacrifices to get to university and then position themselves in the world of work.
There is no question of giving up their professional life today. These women helped to form a “modern society”. An achievement for them, and it is from there that Algeria became a modern society.
The woman wants to work, be independent, free, and share all tasks with the man. But, at the same time, she kept all the traditional tasks: taking care of the children, the house, the in-laws in particular…
She thus assigned herself a second role which caused her great pressure. A dual role fully assumed but under pressure. Consequently, she no longer exercises her role as a wife.
In transition to a westernized society
Comes after this new generation of marriageable age today, where the man also contributes to all the couple's tasks. In this new society, women become impatient, financially independent and expect nothing from men. She demands that the husband be a true partner, otherwise she would prefer a breakup.
Which explains the increasing number of divorce cases. We are here in the middle of a transition towards a new society that is being established, where there will be more divorces. We are moving towards Western or Westernized society, where it would be a question of registering more single people to avoid any marital pressure, in the opinion of Saliha Ouadah.
Unlike the current generation (the youngest), the women of modern society (older) were prepared by their mothers, from traditional society, for the traditional role that they must assume.
The youngest, those who are supposed to be in a relationship now, are otherwise prepared so as not to burden themselves with unnecessary responsibilities and tasks. A break with old concepts: the traditional role of women is no longer inherited!
In addition to mothers who do everything to ensure that their daughters continue their studies for greater independence and not needing a husband, the father installs in his daughter a strong culture of self-confidence. The father is very close to his daughter who will become the strong woman of tomorrow. He makes her a spoiled girl who will refuse in the future to be denigrated and belittled by a man.
Father's place
Urban sociology has undergone very important changes, in the opinion of the specialist, to the point where the father will willingly receive his son-in-law for cohabitation, a choice poorly considered in the past [traditionnellement, c’est la bru qui va s’installer dans sa belle-famille].
Women in modern and traditional societies, previously deprived of their rights, are now able to have them thanks to their daughters!
And it was this man (father) who changed the situation. You should also know that in Algeria, unlike some countries, it is expensive to get married, but not to divorce. In the past, women hesitated to divorce to avoid returning to parents and brothers, but today, this financial independence and the law on divorce guarantees her a home, the termination of the marital contract no longer poses a problem.
The new law, relating to specific measures which guarantee children in custody and divorced women to obtain alimony ordered for their benefit through justice, was published in the Official Journal on February 7. Divorced women and children of divorced parents who cannot enforce a maintenance judgment can now benefit from it.
The magistrate and president of the family affairs section will rule by order, within a period not exceeding five days. This text allows the State to intervene in the event of the debtor's refusal to pay this pension, one of the problems raised by divorced, non-working women.
A new text which decided to put the Alimony Fund under the authority of the Ministry of Justice so that the courts can take charge of the file and pay. An approach which made this mechanism created under Law 15-01 faster, according to the testimonies of certain lawyers, even if no statistics have to date been made public.
