MUSCAT (Parliament Politics Magazine): Omani women are challenging tradition and questioning marriage more than ever before, demanding equal life partnerships, thanks to greater education options and good office employment.
According to official records, over 3,800 divorces were filed in the year 2021, up 12% over the previous year. According to government data, more women in the country are seeking divorce now than they were ten years ago.
In a society where traditional norms are rapidly changing, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs reports that women initiated 67 percent of all divorces last year.
Fatma al-Hammadi, 36, believes that marriage is of limited value if the husband has complete control over all elements of marital life. In October of last year, she ended her eight-year marriage.
Marriage must be an equal partnership in which the woman and her husband organise their lives together. Fatma, a senior banker, told Al Jazeera that it wasn’t a marriage if the man sets all the conditions in your life and compels you to play by his rules.
In the academic year 2021-22, Omani women account for 62% of all students enrolled in colleges and universities. Women accounted for only 39% of students in higher education institutions ten years ago.
The Marriage Battlefield
According to marriage counsellors, if a woman is educated and has a solid job, it is rapidly becoming a “battlefield” for modern marriages in Oman.
About seven out of ten of the marriage-counselling appointments feature educated women with high earning salary who wanted more say in their marital battleground. This indicated that 70% of them came to visit because the lady wanted to be free of her marriage and stop her husband from controlling her, Rahma al-Lamki explained.
Some Omani men fail to accept that a marriage must be based on equality.
Tarek al-Ismaili, a man married for 44 years said, “What is the point of an equal partnership?” According to the customs, a man wasn’t one if his wife controls him and that marriage wasn’t a business contract where they could control it the way they wanted.
However, not all men, particularly younger men, agree, claiming that Omani traditions do not preclude women from having an equal say in marriage.
A 25-year-old IT engineer, “I believe women have the right to control themselves, and it is not in our culture to do so.” He believes that their husbands should give them more power.
“After all, marriage is a shared life, not just in terms of children and a home, but also in terms of feelings.” I want my wife to be a partner, not just a wife, when we get married,” said the man.
