Manama: Saudi working women have launched a social media hashtag to reject links between the rise in divorce figures and the trend of women taking up employment.
A report published this week by the General Authority for Statistics said that the number of divorces among women who held jobs was 72,895 while the figure among women who did not work was 14,856, indicating that working women were more likely to be divorced than non-working wives.
“The rising divorce rate among female employees compared with non-working women is a serious indicator and a call to consider seriously the situation,” Abdah Al Asmari, a consultant, said, quoted by Saudi daily Al Riyadh on Wednesday.
“We need to appreciate how a woman’s job relates to, among other things, money issues, the differences that may arise between the woman and her husband, the interference of family members in the couple’s differences and the time demands that may hamper the woman from fulfilling her home obligations.”
The recklessness and naivety of some husbands seem to be the main factor in inflating these differences, he added.
“There is a deep need for working women not to neglect their family responsibilities and to balance their commitments to work and to the family.”
However, working women rejected the link drawn between employment and divorce and launched a campaign on Twitter with a hashtag in Arabic saying ‘work is no reason for divorce’ to rally support for their views.
Most users who posted comments said that the excessively controlling nature of some husbands was the main cause for divorces in the kingdom whereas others stressed that problems also arose when men accused their wives of not making time for family matters or blamed them for not paying enough attention to their homes.
“A job guarantees financial independence,” Ayah posted using the hashtag. “Even if my husband is wonderful, how can I guarantee my future if something happens to him, God forbid? I need the job.”
In another tweet, Ayah said that a job offered a woman the opportunity to feel self-fulfilled as a human being. “You will not have to wait until your husband gives you money. You make your own money and you are really independent,” she said.
Another user, Sultana, said some men enjoy keeping their wives under their control. “These men enjoy seeing their women under their authority and they get really upset when they see their women becoming independent financially,” she said.
Al Mesfrah said that it was imperative for women to have a job. “It is a crucial asset that women should never give up,” she said. “I know of many women who sacrificed their jobs for their husbands and, when their marriage ended in divorce, they lost both the husband and the job.”
Another user, writing under the moniker of Hope, said that her choices were clear. “If I was ever asked to choose between a job and a husband, I would choose the job,” she posted. “The reason is very simple: The job will not divorce me and will always guarantee me a social status.”
