#Ahwazna – Shocking increase in divorce rate due to poverty in Ahwaz

Ahwazna

Farajollah Khabir, Social and Political Deputy of the Ahwaz’s governor stated that there has been shocking increase in the rate of divorce in Ahwaz, with one in every seven marriage currently ending in divorce. While compared to the last 10 to 12 years, only one marriage out of thirteen ended in divorce.

Behnam Moridi, Head of Ahwaz’s Registration Office, which records the number of new marriages as well as the number of separations, said the divorce rate is on the rise in Ahwazi regions. As in 2013, some 8700 divorce cases have been recorded of which 8312 cases involve urban citizens and 388 cases involve rural couples.

He added, the divorce figures of 2013 in comparison to the previous year (2012), have skyrocketed to 17 per cent. In 2012, 7414 divorces have been recorded.  Mr. Moridi also mentioned that the marriage rate between 2012 and 2013 has fallen by 7.9 per cent.

In 2013, around 52,128 marriages have been filed in the Registration office of which 47,296 couples are from urban areas and 4832 couples are from rural areas.

These annual figures are raising concerns about the breakdown of the families of Ahwazi Arabs and the real causes behind the sharp rise of divorce among Ahwazi couples can be ascribed to the increasing cycle of poverty, long-term unemployment, drug abuse and domestic violence, while financial problems comprise a huge share of the reasons for divorce.

Iran has been seeking inhuman methods to restrict and reduce the growth of Ahwazi population, so by increasing poverty through organized denial of job opportunities they have targeted the family’s structure among the Ahwazi Arab people.  In recent years, large numbers of the Ahwazi families have been shattered by divorce,    drug abuse, and suicide due to extreme poverty.

In recent months, human rights activists have confirmed that many Ahwazi Arab pregnant women, during a caesarean section operation in their first birth delivery, have been subjected to sterilization through deliberate tubectomy without having received any prior notice at the hands of doctors in governmental hospitals.  These are such compelling evidence corroborating the ethnic cleansing policy which has already been adopted by the occupying regime against the Ahwazi Arab people.

This happens while Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has urged the current government to take tangible measures to increase the current population of 77 million to 150 million within 50 years.