The charitable society for marriage and family welfare in Buraidah witnessed a heated discussion in male and female halls after Abdulaziz Al-Msheiqih, a consultant, international arbitrator and lecturer at Al-Qasim University, delivered a lecture about “Being single is the solution.” Member of the board of directors for the society, Khalid Al-Sharaydeh, said the society doesn’t subscribe to a particular opinion, it only hosts speakers.

Al-Msheiqih hoped that all pretensions can be dropped and people can admit that the phenomenon of staying single is prevailing in society, pointing to statistics from the Ministry of Planning in 2010 which stated that the number of single women reached 1,529,418.

He added that research showed that there are 18,000 divorce cases in comparison to 60,000 marriage contracts which prove that the rate of failing marriages stands at 30 percent. Discussion were heated after he said that the reasons behind the large number of single women in Saudi society are men marrying foreign women and the large dowries in some areas, as well as young men’s inability to get married because of current economic circumstances.

He said spinsterhood is a threat the Saudi society faces and sheikhs are trying to stand up to this phenomenon. Some suggested marrying multiple women, while others suggested marrying after taking loans to be paid back in installments.

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