Aiming to decrease divorce rates
Things are about to get much more interesting for graduating Egyptian students. According to , the country will soon implement an anti-divorce program – mandatory for university students starting in September.
The courses, dubbed the Mawadda program is a collaboration between Egypt’s top religious institutions: the Coptic church and Al Azhar. The aim of this project is to combat divorce rates in the North African nation, which have been on a steady high.
Divorce rates in Egypt reached 211,000 cases in 2018, according to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. Therefore, Mawadda, which means affection, was launched earlier this year and it is working towards qualifying university students for marriage. It also educated them on how to choose their partners and handle martial conflicts. The project has been undergoing a trial phase, but starting this September it will be mandatory for graduation.
Amr Osman, Social Solidarity Minister Advisor has revealed that so far, 21,000 young people have received training as part of a project in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, and Port Said. In Egypt, people tend to get married between the ages of 22-29. However, in the villages the age range is even younger, as citizens tend to tie the knot between the ages of 18-25. The program is set to target 900,000 people in the 18-25 age bracket annually, mostly university students. It is also targeting married couples who resort to government’s conflict settlement offices.
The program was launched after Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged the government to take action to combat the country’s high divorce rates. Nevertheless, it is still not clear yet how the Mawada program will be implemented, or which universities will be enforcing it.
