RIYADH, Jun 29 (Arab News): The Shoura Council set up a special committee on Monday to study a draft law concerning marriages between Saudis and foreigners.
The council’s 38th meeting presided over by its Chairman Abdullah Al-Asheikh discussed the draft law that contains 12 articles pertaining to Saudis marrying non-Saudis and vice versa, Shoura Council Secretary-General Mohammad Al-Ghamdi said.
Al-Ghamdi said the members strongly felt the need for such a law. He explained that the regulation should be drafted in accordance with the Islamic law and keeping in mind the social and cultural environment of the Kingdom. He said that a family is the nucleus of the society and the Kingdom’s intention is to strengthen the family for a better society.
While discussing the draft law, the members took note of the social conditions in a family when a marriage between a Saudi and a foreigner takes place. “They discussed the pros and cons of the new law before they appointed a committee to look into the details of such marriages,”Al-Ghamdi said.
He said that the new law should be applicable in the emerging Saudi society considering the increasing population and international interaction between Saudis and foreigners.
The new law is expected to replace rulings on marriages between Saudis and non-Saudis dating back 38 years.
According to sources,the proposed law governing the marriage of a Saudi national to a foreigner will permit Saudi women to marry non-Saudis born in the Kingdom to a Saudi mother or to parents both of non-Saudi nationality, on the condition that prospective husbands have legal residence, birth certificates from the department of Civil Status, and have lived in the Kingdom for at least 15 years.
A total of 144,436 marriage contracts were signed in the Kingdom during 2008 out of which 128,635 (89 percent) involved Saudi couples, according to the annual report of the Ministry of Justice.
The report, which covers the activities of marriage registrars, said 1,944 foreigners married Saudi women that year. It added that the region with the highest number of marriages was Makkah, where 37,892 (26.2 percent) marriages took place.
This was followed by the Riyadh region with 30,759 marriages (21.3 percent). Najran came at the bottom of the list with 2,299 marriage contracts (1.6 percent).
The report said an average of 396 marriages took place every day with each of the Kingdom’s 3,667 marriage officials conducting around 35. The officials, who are concerned only with documenting marriages among Saudi citizens, conducted 126,804 marriages (88 percent). The rest — 17,632 marriages (12 percent) — involved foreigners, who are required to marry in Shariah courts.
According to the report, 30,365 Saudis married in the Makkah region, 25,840 in Riyadh and 2,005 in Najran. There were also some 15,801 (11 percent) marriages in which one partner was non-Saudi — this figure includes 2,141 Saudis who married foreign women. Marriages to non-Saudi women include 1,017 marriages to Yemeni nationals followed by 164 to Syrians, 145 to Pakistanis and 104 to Palestinians.
The report said 1,944 foreigners married Saudi women, including 419 Yemenis, 407 Kuwaitis, 193 Qataris and 176 Syrians. It added that marriages among Filipinos were the highest with 323 marriage contracts followed by Yemenis (30) and Pakistanis (28).