Marital bliss turning sour

Divorce is on the rise among young couples as 90 percent of the petitions filed in the past four years in the Central Region are for those aged 20 to 35 years, court records show.

The records for the same period also show that the country’s cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba and Mzuzu and seven districts of the  Central Region had 11 800 filed petitions.

The main factor triggering divorce, according to Lilongwe chief resident magistrate (CRM) Madalitso Chimwaza, is cruelty.

She also cited financial constraints, saying many families have not been able to recover fully after the Covid -19 pandemic in country between 2020 and 2022.

Said Chimwaza in an interview this week: “An analysis of some of the cases we have handled in the courts show that when a woman is seeking divorce in the courts on the grounds of adultery or cruelty, you will notice that the issues border around cheating; and then violence comes in.

“So, by the time the couple is making that decision to divorce, the cruelty will have taken different shapes and colours: there is abuse, there is mental torture, there is lack of support.”

The records show that in 2023, 3 630 cases were registered in Dedza, Dowa, Kasungu, Lilongwe, Mchinji, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi and Salima districts.

However, petitions have been rising exponentially since 2020 when 1 170 cases were registered. In 2021, 1 522 cases were registered while in 2022, the registered petitions were 2 504.

Figures for Blantyre show that the Magistrate’s Court had 872 cases in 2022 out of which 526 were concluded while in 2023 the commercial city registered 885 cases of which 631 were concluded.

Still in Blantyre, the High Court registered 39 petitions in 2022 out of which 14 were concluded while last year 36 cases were registered with six concluded.

On the other hand, in Zomba, both the Magistrate’s Court and the High Court registered 95 cases in 2022 and 69 were finalised. Last year, 135 cases were filed and 71 were concluded.

Of 310 petitions filed both courts in 2022 in Mzuzu, 191 were concluded while out of 287 cases registered last year, 192 were completed.

The records show that since 2020, Lilongwe tops the list with 1 170 cases registered last year alone while Blantyre had 921 cases.

Lilongwe City registered 444 divorces last year and 360 listed cruelty as the factor, 52 listed adultery while 32 listed desertion.

In 2021, the city registered 131 cases out of which 79 cited cruelty, 14 cited adultery and 38 were for desertion.

Mzuzu City recorded the highest number of 310 petitions in 2022 whilst Zomba recorded the highest cases of 135 petitions in 2023.

The CRM lamented the high numbers of couples seeking divorce which she said is silently dismantling the social community.

“The fact that it is young couples who are breaking up speaks a lot of the social fabric of the society that we are living in.”

She added that the figures are only for the few women who gather courage to come to court to say “enough is enough after enduring hell”.

Said Chimwaza: “There are a lot more others who are still enduring whatever they are going through, so as the age range has shown it means these are young couples, but perhaps the older ones just keep enduring but it’s not that everything is rosy.”

The CRM said the 52 women who sought divorce in 2023 on grounds of adultery means it (adultery) is condoned and rarely comes as a reason for divorce.

“It’s very rare for a woman to come to court to seek divorce after catching her husband cheating on her.”

Women Lawyers Association president Chisomo Nyemba said in an interview on Thursday 70 percent of cases they handle are matrimonial disputes.

“Approximately 70 percent of the cases we are currently handling are matrimonial disputes and a majority of them are for an order for divorce and consequential orders of child custody and maintenance,” she said.

Nyemba added that issues such as domestic violence, emotional abuse, excessive controlling behaviour which restricts the autonomy of women and infidelity also feature highly in such cases.

A 2016 study titled ‘Where Did It Go Wrong? Marriage and Divorce in Malawi’ concluded that divorce in the country is driven partly by economic considerations of the spouse, with consumption sharing within households as an important determinant.

The survey by Laurens Cherchye, Bram De Rock, Selma Telalagic Walther and Frederic Vermeulen found that almost half of the men interviewed were ready to be single and more than half of the women interviewed had remarriage opportunities.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Dr Ndumanene Silungwe, a clinical psychologist at Saint John of God Hospital attributed rising cases of divorce to civil liberties, education and financial independence between couples.

He pointed out that in the past women were entrapped in marriage because they lacked financial independence but now things have changed.

He said: “Most women are now financially independent and more resilient to factors that entrapped women in abusive marriages, and now they say ‘why should I be emotionally drained and abused when I can fend for myself and my children’.”

Silungwe also said   psychologically, most women are now well-informed about emotional abuse.

Commenting on the consequences of divorce, Chimwaza singled out children as the ultimate victims who may likely face a doomed future.

She explained that most couples fight over children not out of love but to settle scores, saying the argument mostly is that the one asking for divorce should not have custody of the children.

She said: “The net-effects of divorce are issues of child maintenance which is another area that is so disturbing in terms of the numbers.”