TY - JOUR
T1 - Divorce among “unmarried” muslim arabs in Israel
T2 - Women's reasons for the dissolution of unactualized marriages
AU - Savaya, Riki
AU - Cohen, Orna
PY - 2004/3/22
Y1 - 2004/3/22
N2 - This paper explores the reasons for what we term “contract divorce” among a sample of 56 such divorced Muslim Arab women in Israel. “Contract divorce” occurs when the marital union is dismantled during the customary period of delay between the time the couple sign the legally binding marital contract, which makes them man and wife in both Islamic and Israeli law, and the time they move in together and consummate their marriage. This period of delay is designed to permit the couple, who are otherwise bound by strict rules of gender segregation, to spend time together and get to know one another before beginning their life together. The most frequently stated reason for the contract divorce was the woman's discovery of incompatibility and major lifestyle differences. These focused on differences in religiosity, modernity, or education, or stemmed from the woman's objections to her husband's personality traits and behaviors. Lack of attraction was a much less frequent reason, though strong dislike or hatred was given more often. The least frequent reason, but a telling one, was bad faith on the part of Palestinian men who married Israeli Arab women in order to obtain Israeli identification cards, and then divorced when they got the papers.
AB - This paper explores the reasons for what we term “contract divorce” among a sample of 56 such divorced Muslim Arab women in Israel. “Contract divorce” occurs when the marital union is dismantled during the customary period of delay between the time the couple sign the legally binding marital contract, which makes them man and wife in both Islamic and Israeli law, and the time they move in together and consummate their marriage. This period of delay is designed to permit the couple, who are otherwise bound by strict rules of gender segregation, to spend time together and get to know one another before beginning their life together. The most frequently stated reason for the contract divorce was the woman's discovery of incompatibility and major lifestyle differences. These focused on differences in religiosity, modernity, or education, or stemmed from the woman's objections to her husband's personality traits and behaviors. Lack of attraction was a much less frequent reason, though strong dislike or hatred was given more often. The least frequent reason, but a telling one, was bad faith on the part of Palestinian men who married Israeli Arab women in order to obtain Israeli identification cards, and then divorced when they got the papers.
KW - Divorce
KW - Divorce among Arabs
KW - Divorce in Israel
KW - Muslim divorce
KW - Women and divorce
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34248605103&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1300/J087v40n01_07
DO - 10.1300/J087v40n01_07
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AN - SCOPUS:34248605103
SN - 1050-2556
VL - 40
SP - 93
EP - 109
JO - Journal of Divorce and Remarriage
JF - Journal of Divorce and Remarriage
IS - 1-2
ER -