By: Yara Abdel-Nasser Ibrahim ID: 191735
Divorce is one of the most serious issues that face Egypt. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), in 2017, there are 913 thousand marriage cases recorded; on the other hand, there are 198 thousand divorce cases recorded. The percentage was 21.7% to every 100 marriage cases. According to the Egyptian Family Law, the custody is preferably given to the mother rather than given to the father up to age 15. There are many people who are against this law. Children should be with their mothers because they can meet their physiological needs better even when they are married after a divorce.
Children who are aged under 15 years old have physiological needs and their relations with their mothers are stronger than their fathers because of the physiological aspect. According to “Maslow”’s Hierarchy of Needs, the physiological needs of humans is in the first rank. Children cannot meet their needs by themselves. When they are babies, they cannot even talk about their needs clearly. Mothers can understand their children’s needs and meet them perfectly. Scientifically, mothers and children have high levels of the hormone “Oxytocin”, the hormone of love and friendship that makes the relationship between mothers and their children is stronger than the relationship between fathers and their children (Britt, 2007).
According to the Egyptian Family Law, if the mother gets married after divorce, she will lose the children’s custody. It claims that the mother would be careless about their children and their husbands would hate the children and treat them in a bad way that might affect the children psychologically. Thus, women after divorce should get married from relative men such as the children’s uncle or do not get married to keep the custody.
The marriage of women after divorce does not mean careless about the children. There is no evidence that marriage will affect their relationships with their children. Firstly, the law allows her to marry the uncle as an example, so this is not a reason. Secondly, the hormone that is mentioned before makes the relationship between the mother and the child lifelong. Mothers have the freedom such as fathers to get married after a divorce. There is no proof that all of the mothers’ husbands treat the children badly. Moreover, it will help the child to be raised up in a complete family (Kelly, 2000).
In conclusion, divorce is a problem that creates other conflicts in sequence. The conflict of child custody is one of them. The child custody should always go to the mother as the Egyptian Family Law states because she can meet the physiological needs of her children based on a scientific aspect. In addition, she can build another family by marriage without missing her role as a mother.
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