The Marriage Rate in Homs

The correspondent of al-Ayyam in Homs writes that in the past year, 1945, the Sharia court completed nine hundred marriage transactions and one hundred and fifty divorce transactions.

If we consider the marriages concluded among some 270,000 souls — the population of the province of Homs — we find the rate to be one in every three hundred. This is very low indeed, with grave consequences and heavy results for offspring and for society; it is a matter that calls for attention, and demands the concern of those whom the matter touches.

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Some say that the reason young men hold back from marriage is the high cost of dowries and the expenses of weddings; others say otherwise — that is, a lack of desire for marriage. Whether it be the one or the other, men of sense must labor with all their strength to remove those obstacles, whatever they may be, for the preservation of offspring and the safeguarding of society.