Cafes to close midnight in Ismailiyah to reduce divorce rate

CAIRO - 29 July 2019: Ismailiyah Governor Hamdy Othman announced on Sunday he had decided to oblige cafes to close at 1:00 a.m. in summer and at midnight in winter in order to decrease divorce rates in the governorate.

In 2017, the number of marriage cases recorded 913,000, while the divorce cases hit 198,000, averaging 21.7 percent of divorce ratio to every 100 marriage cases. This is the lowest ratio worldwide, according to the official statistics issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Additionally, 4,400 cases of divorced women return to their former husbands and 24,000 of divorced wives get married for another time.

Official data referred that the rate of customary marriage (Urfi marriage) hit 149,000 in 2017; underage girls constitute a third of this rate and women ranging between 22 to 24 years old constitute 22 percent.

The data also showed that the number of children below 15 years old who live with their mothers after parents' separation recorded 778,000 and 162,000 for those who live with their fathers, recording 3 percent of the children who live with only one of their parents.