Cities in every part of the world, including the Muslim world, are in a state of virtual chaos. In the past, traditional families had grandparents who would pass on traditional behavioral codes to the family, but today families do not live the same way. Children are not able to go outside and play in the yard, neighborhood or streets and are not able to expend their energy. They are constantly forced to interact with their parents in one way or another.
If the family unit were to include a grandmother and grandfather, the relationship they would establish with their grandchildren would not only help out the mother and father but also relieve the grandparents’ sense of loneliness. Because when people reach old age, they want to spend their time with their children and grandchildren and die in their company. Parents either work or have received modern education and are not in a position to teach their children anything. This makes children turn to the television or the Internet to learn their culture. In traditional societies, a woman could come face to face with her neighbor the moment she stepped out from the privacy of her home. But now, before she can leave her home or apartment she must carefully prepare herself: dress up, cover her hair and go through a set of ceremonies before she can go outside. This is especially the case for women that prefer to dress modestly, creating an additional burden and task and requiring additional effort. Therefore, the relationship between people has become strenuous.
Certainly, this has an effect on city life. As it can clearly be seen, there is a significant population accumulation. Take for example Egypt: The population has reached 79 million, and 75 percent of the population is under 30 years of age. It is a young and hopeless population. There are no employment or labor opportunities and schools and universities are at maximum capacity. A thousand students listen to one teacher in a lecture hall. Without a doubt, accommodating, socializing and making them a part of a particular location becomes an extremely difficult task.
We are experiencing similar situations in Turkey. The inequality in income distribution leads to violence which consequently causes crime rates to go up. With the change in human to human relationships, the rate of divorces has also increased. There is also a change in the nature of divorces. Both in Islamic law and the positive law that is in force there are substantial reasons for divorce. These include abandonment, adultery (this was removed from being deemed a crime and a reason for divorce after adopting the EU harmonization package), mental illness, an attempt on one’s life and the commitment of a humiliating crime by one’s spouse. Nowadays, “irreconcilable differences” is the biggest cause of divorce. When we examine the root of irreconcilable differences we first see that in about 50 percent of the cases it is economic reasons. Married couples cannot get along economically, even though they have an income that would be enough for a content man and women who have agreed to live an Islamic life. But there are higher standards that the media constantly emphasizes and imposes onto society. The inability to reach those standards causes couples to get a divorce.
The second type of irreconcilable difference cited in a divorce is infidelity. Today there are as many women that are unfaithful to their husbands as there are men that are unfaithful to their wives. This used to be a very exceptional situation that happened rarely and was not as widespread. Likewise, the number of people that are going mad and using violence on their family is increasing day by day.
In Turkey, mainly men beat their wives. But an interesting piece of information is that in Egypt there is a significant rise in the number of women that beat their husbands. When we compare Turkey, Egypt and Iran to each other we come across an even more interesting piece of data: The country with the highest rate of divorce is Iran. Due to the war in the country, there was a sudden emigration from the South to the North and marriages became unstable, causing families to fall apart. There is a high level of unemployment in Egypt and close to 10 million Egyptians have gone to various parts of the world in search of a job. There are 9 million women under the age of 30 that are living by themselves at home. In short, Islamic societies are getting their share of postmodernism’s unraveling of societies in the world.
