The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) is implementing the project “Young Women’s Divorce: Causes and Effects,” which aims to reduce legal and social discrimination against women, increase young women’s access to justice, and promote their rights and choices. The project is funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation of Germany.

Project coordinator, Professor Wafaa Heles, indicated that the Center seeks, through this project, to conduct a research study to shed light on a social phenomenon that is gradually increasing in the Gaza Strip: divorce among young women, notably before consummation of marriage. The study will provide women’s and civil society organizations with qualitative information and statistics that will enable them to develop plans and programs to support young women and advocate for women’s rights. It also aims to stimulate research capacities within civil society organizations, particularly women’s organizations, to deepen their efforts towards advocating for women’s rights and eliminating legal discrimination against them.

She explained that the project also aims to complete a national campaign and influence decision-makers to amend the Personal Status Law regarding the conditions of engagement and marriage. Further, the project seeks to provide official institutions within the Palestinian National Authority with information and analysis to build legislation and policies from a gender, human rights, women’s and adolescent girls’ perspective, especially regarding their reproductive rights, and to integrate these into national policies.

She confirmed that the Center is pursuing the study “Young Women’s Divorce: Causes and Effects” because of the increasing number of young women who have filed complaints with the Center’s legal consultation unit. She stated that the majority of these complaints revolve around their suffering and the injustice inflicted upon them by their husbands from a legal standpoint, even before the finalization of the marriage, a stage referred to as engagement. However, this stage is officially considered a legal marriage that carries the same legal implications as if the marriage had been consummated. She pointed out that the divorce rate in the Gaza Strip is 11% of the marriage rate, according to Sharia court statistics. Meanwhile, the percentage of young divorced women, especially before consummation, constitutes 42% of the total divorce cases, which is a significant percentage in a region experiencing tragic conditions.