“Generally, bride-grooms usually take the lead in seeking divorces. Family feuds, unhappy conjugal lives, extra-marital affairs, illicit relationships, and dowry matters are the main reasons behind the divorces.”

“Broken apart from conjugal life, many divorcees are too frustrated to indulge in activities, contributing to degradation of social life.”

For instance, Ms. Shajeeda (18), daughter of Lukman, who hails from Daar Gri Zaar Village of Nasaka Area No. 5 of Maungdaw Township, sought divorce in May of last year. Only three days later after the marriage of one Haron (25), from the same village, said that she was forced to seek divorce since her husband had been inflicting physical torture on her after developing illicit affairs with another young girl in the village. As a Nasaka collaborator, he was using power without taking any care of the local villagers, including the parents of bride, said a close relative of the victim who declined to be named.

During the marriage, the parents of bride presented the bridegroom with 1.8 million kyats. The bridegroom has to return the entire gifts given from bride’s family side, and the ornaments of the bride have to be returned to the bride as the bridegroom forcibly divorced her. However, using the power of the Nasaka, the groom did not return anything to the bride, the relative added.

“Regarding this, the parents of the bride appraised this matter to the concerned local authority, but they did not take any heed because the bridegroom is a close collaborator of the Nasaka.”

As a result, the parents of the bride, hoping for justice approached another well-known Nasaka collaborator named Md. Zubair, the ex-village Chairman of Maung Nama Village Tract of Maungdaw North. He took 700,000 kyats from the parents of the bride to solve the problem. He is one of the close aides of Nasaka headquarters of Kyigan Pyin village. Believing him, they paid him money in January of this year. However, in April, when the parents of the victim asked Jubair about the matter, he replied that he as not able to solve the problem and he did not want to return the money. Therefore, the parents were twice cheated by the two said Nasaka collaborators, said another relative of the victim. 

“In Maungdaw Township, a few cases could be settled peacefully, with the divorce seekers going back to normal conjugal life. There are too many cases of divorce in Maungdaw Township.”

Another woman from Maungdaw said that she sought divorce in December of last year as her husband was a drug addict lacking in respect for his wife. He created pressure on her for a dowry.

A village elder from Maungdaw South said, “Another bridegroom accuses his wife of continuing relationships with her former boyfriend and destroying the status of his family.”