DOHA: The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting at Tamim bin Hamad Hall under the chairmanship of Speaker of the Council Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanim.
At the outset of the meeting, the Speaker of the Council hailed Qatar's successful AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 hosting, expressing his pride in the success of the tournament at various levels.
The Council extended its highest congratulations and blessings to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Qatari people on the national team's second successive Asian Cup title.
The Council commended the organising committee of the tournament and expressed pride in the capacities of Qatari youth who have shown excellent performance, pride in their identity, and commitment to patriotism. It also affirmed that Qatar's successful hosting of the event demonstrated its world sports excellence capitalizing on its integrated sports infrastructure.
Hailing the event as a milestone in the history of the AFC Asian Cup, the Council highlighted the unprecedented record of fan attendance, media coverage and associated activities that received wide international acclaim. This success confirmed Doha's position as the capital of sports and culture, which created bridges of communication and became an important meeting place for people of different races and nationalities, the Council said.
After that, the Council discussed the findings of the Council's interim committee concerned with studying the problem of increasing divorce rates in society. The committee was formed by a Shura Council decision in its last session, to study a request by several Council members to address that issue.
Following extensive deliberations of the findings and submitting views for practical solutions to rein in increasing divorce rates, the Council decided to submit a proposition to the esteemed government that included several axes and visions that would contribute to addressing the increasing divorce issue.
These axes included forming a committee for coordination and cooperation among the concerned authorities to reduce divorce; holding mandatory training courses for those about to get married; allowing sufficient time for spouse reconciliation before moving to the judiciary; returning the reconciliation jurisdiction to the Wefaq Center; reducing working hours for married Qatari female employees according to regulations, in a way that supports the work-family balance; raising awareness of the importance of the family in educational curricula, the media, lectures, lessons and religious sermons, in addition to providing an accurate database showing divorce rates.
In this context, Al Ghanim highlighted the negative social effects of increasing divorce rates, warning that this issue goes beyond the family to affect the whole of society.
The tolerant Islamic Sharia has dealt with and established appropriate solutions for all problems faced by Muslims, including divorce as the most hateful permissible solution; however, divorce has been increasing recently for reasons that can be avoided, and this is a challenge that creates a responsibility for maintaining the family cohesion, he said.
Given the importance of the issue and the Council's commitment to society, he added, the Shura Council discussed it in the second session and formed an interim committee to study it, which made efforts to scrutinize its various aspects and dimensions.
During his presentation of the report, Shura Council Member HE Khalid bin Abas Kamal Al Emadi, who chaired the Interim Committee, referred to the committee meetings with the concerned authorities to study the issue and highlighted the reasons it found, and the recommendations and insights it concluded.
In another context, the Shura Council discussed a government bill on exemptions and facilitations for the state's hosting of sports tournaments and decided to refer it to the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee to study and submit its report on it.
The Council also approved requests to extend the work of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee to study a general debate request on developing the tourism economy, and the work of the Information and Cultural Affairs Committee to study topics including 'disadvantages of using technology', a 'draft law on higher education institutions' and the Cabinet's General Secretariat's response to a proposition on the Qatari teachers' reluctance to pursue the teaching profession.
At the conclusion of the session, Al Ghanim highlighted the completion of the Shura Council's preparations to participate in the National SportDay 2024, on Tuesday, stressing the Council's keenness to participate in this important sporting event and urging all members of society to participate in the associated activities as a starting point towards a healthy, active life throughout the year.