Lahore: Wealthy areas' women less likely to seek divorce from courts: Survey finds

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Clinical psychologist says people in affluent localities try to keep their social status intact by not making their disputes public
* Advocate Surayya Farzand says if a dispute starts in a less privileged family, the husband usually beats wife and forces her to leave home

By Rana Tanveer
LAHORE: It seems that women in posh localities are happy with their marital life, because a less number of women from these areas go to courts to get divorce, compared to women from less privileged areas, reveals courts data available a survey conducted by Daily Times.

The survey, which was completed after analysing 300 cases out of 12,000, pending before family courts of the city, revealed that 7.8 percent women of Gulberg, DHA and Model Town (Gulberg 3 percent, DHA 2.2 percent and Model Town 2.6 percent) moved the courts.

These cases are about suits for dissolution of marriage, maintenance, repayment of conjugal rights, and suit for recovery of dowry.

The survey revealed that Bund Road alone has eight percent women who moved the courts to resolve their family disputes. About 32.7 percent women of less privileged areas have moved the courts to resolve their divorce disputes.

7.1 percent women in Cantonment demanded marital rights through courts from their former husbands, the study reveals. The Cantonment includes Saddar, Burki, and Manawan.

Women of Shalamar and its suburbs (7.5 percent), Shahdara (7.2 percent), Multan Road (3.4 percent), Wahdat Colony (0.75 percent), Johar Town/Iqbal Town (3.4 percent) and Chungi Amarsidhu (1.5 percent) took their family disputes before the courts.

Clinical Psychologist Sajjad Ahmad said, “Almost every married couple fights, but it is up to them how they resolve their matters. In affluent localities, people try to keep their social status intact by not making their disputes public. Women in posh localities being well educated try their best to resolve their family matters on their own. In case they have to part, they do it without intimating others or going to courts.” He said women in posh localities did not bother to move the courts for recovery of dower, which they considered an insult to the family.

He said, “Women in less privileged areas, being less educated, make mountains out of a molehill, disturbing their marital lives that later end in divorces.”

Normally, he said, women did not file cases against their former husbands, but their families forced them to do so.

Advocate Surayya Farzand Chaudhry, who deals with family cases, said, “If a matter rises in a well-off family, it is resolved through conciliation and in few cases divorce takes place. If a dispute rises in a less privileged family, the husband beats the wife and forces her to leave home. In such cases, husbands neither let their wives return home, nor divorce them, which forces the women to approach the courts.”

She said, “In several cases, the husband divorces his wife, but does not return her dower, which again leads the women to move the courts.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...08_pg13_10