Countries: China
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Shaking off social stereotypes around divorce that suggest she [Sushi, newly divorced] should feel shame and failure, she decided to throw a party with all of her girlfriends" (para 2). "On Xiaohongshu, a Chinese video-sharing social media app, divorce parties and inspiring content about the lives of newly single women are gaining thousands of likes" (para 5). "The shift in views on divorce has been significant. Historically, the low social status of women in China led to the dominance of men in divorce proceedings. Getting divorced would often damage a woman’s reputation, but not her ex-husband’s. That started to change in 1980, when divorce registration was made easier, with 'breakdown...more

Countries: Singapore
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Men are required to maintain their ex-wives during the iddah. Men are also required to provide a mutaah (consolatory gift) to their ex-wives... [T]he women may also claim for emas kahwin (compulsory marriage gift) and hantaran belanja (marriage expenses). Men do not have equivalent rights against their ex-wives" (42).

Countries: Bulgaria
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"[M]ediation [is used] in divorce proceedings in cases of domestic violence" (13). Domestic violence is a legal ground for divorce (MV- coder comment).

Countries: Iran
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"She never got justice for the brutal attack 12 years ago that left her permanently disfigured. Her father-in-law threw acid in her face because she had sought a divorce from her husband" (para 3). "At the end, the family threatened that the same punishment would befall her son if she pressed charges" (para 6).

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"There’s an old saying in Afghanistan that encapsulates the country’s views on divorce: 'A woman only leaves her father’s house in the white bridal clothes, and she can only return in the white shrouds'" (para 1). "In this deeply conservative and patriarchal society, women who defy convention and seek divorce are often disowned by their families and shunned by Afghan society. Left alone, they have to fight for basic rights, such as renting an apartment, which require the involvement or guarantees of male relatives"(para 2). "Men and women in Roqia’s life distanced themselves from her. 'My mother and other relatives rejected me, saying that I had not heeded their advice...more

Countries: China
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Though China’s marriage law specifies that domestic violence is sufficient grounds for divorce, many courts encourage couples to try reconciling in the name of social and family harmony" (para 22). "At the root of the problem, according to activists, is a notion among police officers and the courts that divorce is bad and that marriage is the bedrock of society" (para 24). "Divorce is regarded as a personal failure, rather than as a remedy for one’s life" (para 25). "After the third beating, Ms. Liu’s in-laws tried to persuade her to stay in the marriage with promises of a car and an apartment, she said. She refused, and they have...more

Countries: Afghanistan
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-1, ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Women’s rights advocates say assaults in public in urban centers have become bolder in the last two years. But many of the recent attacks in the capital seem to involve personal rather than political motives, said Gholam Dastagir of Kabul police. In Kabul, at least three separate acid attacks against women were reported just in July, according to local Afghan news reports. The aim of attackers may be to punish women who might refuse a suitor, or insist on going to school or want a divorce. Families may not report the attack fearful of gossip and isolation" (Para 9).

Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Boris Johnson has been criticised by his own backbenchers for green-lighting a law allowing no-fault divorces from as early as next month" (para 1). "The Prime Minister may face a rebellion from swathes of his own MPs during the House of Commons vote on Monday, and has been accused of rushing through the plans in lockdown, when many marriages are under increased stress" (para 2). "Dozens of conservative MPs are set to oppose the motion, however, with Sir Edward Leigh, Fiona Bruce and Sir John Hayes writing to 200 of their colleagues that the reforms would leak to 'an immediate spike in divorce rates'. The letter, seen by the Daily...more

Countries: Syria
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"A friend of Eren’s married a Syrian woman last year who he said was pious and subservient. Wanting the same, Eren pursued an arranged marriage with Nur, promising her escape from the Kilis Camp on Turkey’s southern border. After he raped her repeatedly on their honeymoon, Nur fled, taking shelter at her brother’s house. But Nur says the stigma of divorce for Syrian women is unbearable, and so she prepares to reconcile with Eren" (para 3). "Having fled the war, Syrian women and girls are vulnerable to exploitation and increasing levels of abuse. Some look to marriage for protection, others are victims of pimps or matchmakers out for profit. Recently,...more

Countries: Syria
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Eren pursued an arranged marriage with Nur, promising her escape from the Kilis Camp on Turkey’s southern border. After he raped her repeatedly on their honeymoon, Nur fled, taking shelter at her brother’s house. But Nur says the stigma of divorce for Syrian women is unbearable, and so she prepares to reconcile with Eren" (para 3). "[T]he stigma of divorce is so strong that some women, like Nur, a refugee living in a camp in southern Turkey, would rather risk abuse" (4, 37).

Countries: Iraq
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-1, ATDW-PRACTICE-3

“W.H. v. Sweden (no. 49341/10) (8 April 2015 (Grand Chamber)): This case concerned an asylum seeker’s threatened expulsion from Sweden to Iraq, where she alleged she would be at risk of ill-treatment as a single woman of Mandaean denomination, a vulnerable ethnic/religious minority. The applicant submitted that, a divorcee belonging to a small, vulnerable ethnic/religious minority, she would be at real risk of inhuman and degrading treatment if returned to Iraq. She alleged in particular that, without a male network or any remaining relatives in Iraq, she would be at risk of persecution, assault, rape, forced conversion to another religion and forced marriage. The Court observed that the applicant had...more

Countries: North Korea
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Population administration institutions, upon being notified by neighbours concerned of family disputes arising in the area under their control, used their best efforts to guide them towards amicable settlement. The courts before which a divorce case was brought due to family dispute conducted education of the persons involved at the stages of lawyers’ counselling and fact-finding by judges with a view to guiding them to reconciliation. Since 2003, about 30 per cent of divorce-related cases were resolved through reconciliation between the parties" (12).

Countries: Nigeria
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"African women are often excluded from social and economic plans -- safety nets they desperately need -- after the death of a spouse or dissolution of a marriage, experts from the World Bank said in a 2018 report." (63).

Countries: Pakistan
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Divorced, separated, and widowed women are more likely to have experienced physical violence (41%) than currently married women (27%)" (305). "Fourteen percent of divorced, separated, or widowed women have experienced sexual violence. By contrast, only 5% of currently married women have experienced sexual violence, with 4% experiencing such violence in the past 12 months" (306).

Countries: Iraq
Variables: ATDW-PRACTICE-1, ATDW-PRACTICE-3

"Local and international NGOs reported that the practice of husbands or their families threatening to divorce wives they married when the girls were very young (ages 12 to 16) to pressure the girl’s family to provide additional money to the girl’s husband and his family also occurred, particularly in the south. Victims of these forced divorces were compelled to leave their husbands and their husbands’ families, and social customs regarding family honor often prevented victims from returning to their own families, leaving some adolescent girls abandoned" (44).