Digital temptations, economic strain fuel Pakistan’s rising divorce crisis, experts say

By Akhtar Pathan

KARACHI, Pakistan (MNTV) — What was long regarded as a social problem confined largely to the West has quietly taken hold in Pakistan’s conservative and deeply religious society, where experts warn it is steadily weakening the institution of marriage by driving couples apart and creating rifts within extended families.

Experts interviewed by MNTV identify addiction to social media and pornography among the most significant emerging threats to stable marriages in Pakistan, ranking behind only poverty or unemployment and domestic violence rooted in patriarchal norms.

They also point to a husband’s inability to provide separate accommodation for his wife, a wife’s reluctance to adapt to the joint family system, and persistent interference by parents and other close relatives in a couple’s private life as major contributors to marital breakdown.

While sociologists have long recognized social media and pornography as significant drivers of divorce in Western societies, experts say those same forces are increasingly reshaping marriages in Pakistan.

According to the experts, digital dependency is eroding emotional intimacy, fostering unrealistic expectations, enabling hidden cyber-infidelity and diverting spouses’ attention away from one another.

What began as a private concern has evolved into a significant contributor to divorce across the United States and other Western countries. Pakistan, too, is now confronting many of the same challenges, with social media and pornography joining unemployment and domestic violence among the most damaging pressures facing modern marriages.

A deepening crisis: Numbers paint a troubling picture

Islamic scholar and media personality Khurshid Nadeem says the sharp rise in talaq (divorce) and khula cases filed in Pakistani courts reflects a deepening crisis confronting the country’s family institution.

The difference between talaq and khula lies in who initiates the divorce. Talaq is initiated by the husband, while khula is sought by the wife. Both dissolve a marriage under Islamic law but follow different legal procedures.

Drawing on figures from Islamabad’s family courts, Nadeem says about 300 divorce and maintenance cases are filed daily, totaling nearly 9,000 each month. Court sources indicate that more than 45,000 cases had already been filed during the year, while official statistics show approximately 85,000 divorce cases were registered in 2023, 91,000 in 2024 and well over 100,000 in 2025.

He also found that 15,198 family-related cases — including divorce, khula and maintenance claims —were registered in Rawalpindi courts during 2025. Combined with Islamabad’s figures, he says, the data provide a snapshot of a broader national crisis affecting Pakistani families.

“That our family system is in deep crisis is writing on the wall. If someone has not yet filed a divorce or khula case, it does not mean that he is living a happy married life. The crisis, in turn, is giving birth to illicit affairs, making the situation even worse,” Nadeem says.

Three forces driving family breakdown

Assessing the issue from a sociological perspective, Nadeem identifies three principal forces fueling growing strain within Pakistani families: ignorance, entrenched patriarchy and unbridled freedom.

He argues that many people lack a basic understanding of the purpose of the family institution. As a result, religious teachings on marriage, family life and the responsibilities of husbands and wives are often misunderstood or misapplied.

Traditional social structures, he says, frequently place women in an inferior position by excluding them from meaningful decision-making and limiting their personal development. When one spouse enjoys freedom while the other does not, he argues, the family structure becomes fundamentally unbalanced.

Nadeem contends that parts of the educated class have reacted to patriarchal traditions by embracing concepts of individual freedom influenced by Western liberal thought. While acknowledging that reaction, he argues that marriage inevitably requires both spouses to surrender some personal freedoms for the benefit of family life.

According to him, absolute freedom is an illusion, and excessive individualism can be just as damaging to the family institution as patriarchal attitudes. In Islamabad, he argues, this cultural shift has become a significant factor behind the extraordinary rise in divorce cases.

Financial hardship also remains a serious threat to family stability, he says, but its effects are often compounded by broader social and cultural problems. Families, he argues, are better able to withstand economic challenges when they establish priorities and balance their needs with available resources.

Convenient legal procedure blamed

Advocate Raheela Khan says nearly every town and district across Pakistan is experiencing a steady rise in family disputes reaching the courts. In many district courts, divorce petitions now outnumber newly registered marriages. In Karachi alone, she says, about 8,000 divorces were granted through khula proceedings in 2025.

Khan identifies the relative ease of the khula process as one of the major factors behind the growing number of marital dissolutions.

She says that when a wife alleges habitual abuse and seeks khula, the court notifies the husband and proceeds if he responds. If he does not, a public notice is issued, after which the court may grant khula unilaterally. The convenience of the existing procedure has contributed to the increase in khula petitions, she contends.

To address the issue, Khan proposes making counseling mandatory before a marriage can be dissolved.

Lack of preparation for marriage

According to Khan, another principal driver of family breakdown is a widening disconnect from religious teachings and a poor understanding of the rights and responsibilities that accompany marriage, family life and society.

Many couples, she says, begin married life without adequate knowledge of Islamic guidance on resolving marital disputes and fulfilling their obligations.

Khan also identifies the absence of patience, tolerance and emotional maturity among spouses as a major cause of marital breakdown.

Many couples enter marriage without receiving moral guidance on building a family, sharing responsibilities, raising children or resolving inevitable disagreements, she says. Parents and elders, she adds, have increasingly failed to prepare their sons for the responsibilities of marriage or to teach them to treat their wives with patience and compassion.

Economic pressures and joint family challenges

A husband’s inability to provide financial maintenance is another major contributor to divorce, Khan says. At the same time, some wives are insufficiently prepared to endure financial hardship with patience, prompting some to seek khula when economic pressures intensify.

Khan also points to shortcomings in Pakistan’s traditional joint family system. Some women, she says, seek greater independence or hold misconceptions about personal freedom, preferring separate households rather than living with in-laws and accepting the restrictions of joint family life.

When those expectations are not met, some couples move quickly toward divorce, she says. At the same time, she argues that in-laws often share responsibility because extended family members frequently fail to respect the privacy and personal boundaries of married couples.

Advocate Asma Mushtaq agrees, saying the traditional joint family system continues to place considerable strain on marriages, with parents and close relatives frequently interfering in the private lives of married couples.

To address the problem, Mushtaq calls for greater awareness among parents and extended families about the rights, responsibilities and personal space of married couples. Educating families on these issues, she says, is essential to preserving family harmony and strengthening the institution.

Mandatory counseling proposed

To help reverse the trend, Khan advocates court-mandated counseling before a divorce is finalized. She proposes requiring couples to complete a compulsory six-month reconciliation program.

Drawing on Quranic guidance, she says spouses should be encouraged to focus on each other’s strengths rather than shortcomings. Where either partner suspects infidelity, she recommends that both families appoint an arbitrator to pursue reconciliation before the marriage reaches the point of dissolution.

Khan notes that several countries already require couples seeking divorce to undergo counseling or reconciliation before a court dissolves a marriage. Whether mandated by law or established through convention, she believes Pakistan should adopt a similar approach to strengthen families and slow the rising divorce rate.

Compulsory marriage education

Islamic scholar Khurshid Nadeem calls for compulsory family education and marriage preparation for young men and women before marriage, arguing that better preparation could help reverse Pakistan’s rising divorce rate.

He says completion of the course should become a legal prerequisite for marriage and include balanced religious instruction that rejects both rigid patriarchy and unrestricted individualism.

Nadeem also argues that prospective spouses should be taught the broader social purpose of the family institution, emphasizing that marriage is not merely a legitimate means of fulfilling sexual desires but a social institution founded on significant rights, duties and responsibilities.

Advocate Raheela Khan likewise supports a mandatory six-month premarital course covering marital responsibilities, moral and emotional development, conflict resolution and realistic expectations.

She proposes requiring couples to complete the program before marriage, with certification incorporated into the nikahnama (marriage deed), and recommends introducing family education into academic curricula.

Khan also advocates legislation requiring judges to delay granting khula and instead direct couples seeking divorce to remain legally married while completing a mandatory six-month reconciliation period.

During that time, she says, husbands should be required to appear before the court and address their wives’ grievances under the supervision of a court-appointed conciliator.

Social media and pornography cited as drivers

Khan identifies social media and pornography as major contributors to rising divorce rates and urges the government to impose stricter controls on social media use and access to sexually explicit online content, which she says is readily available through mobile phones and increasingly undermines family life.

Social media fuels dissatisfaction by portraying unrealistic lifestyles and encouraging constant comparisons, Khan says. Instead of nurturing genuine relationships, some individuals compare their marriages with carefully curated online images, contributing to frustration, unrealistic expectations and family conflict.

She argues that social media also facilitates emotional and extramarital affairs by enabling people to reconnect with former partners or establish secret online relationships that later become evidence in court. Khan also cites research indicating that married individuals who begin consuming pornography experience significantly higher divorce rates than those who do not.

Men bear greater responsibility for marital breakdown

Advocate Asma Mushtaq says the sharp rise in divorce is driven by interconnected factors, including growing impatience between spouses, a husband’s failure to provide financial maintenance, domestic violence, immoral behavior and estrangement from religion, which she believes contributes to broader moral decline.

According to her, the causes vary across socioeconomic groups. In lower-income households, unemployment and financial hardship remain the dominant pressures. Among wealthier families, marital breakdown is more often linked to immoral conduct, pornography, social media interactions and extramarital affairs.

In lower-middle-income households, Mushtaq identifies domestic violence, psychological abuse and failure to provide financial maintenance among the leading causes of divorce.

While acknowledging that abuse occurs across all social classes, she says it is more prevalent in poorer families and remains one of the primary reasons marriages end.

She believes men bear greater responsibility than women for marital breakdown, although women also contribute in some cases. Physical and emotional violence committed by men accounts for most failed marriages, she argues, estimating responsibility at roughly 80% for men and 20% for women.

While acknowledging that intolerance on the part of women can also contribute to failed marriages, Mushtaq maintains that men are more frequently responsible because of failure to provide financial maintenance, physical and emotional abuse and violence against their wives.

She agrees with Khan that pornography and social media addiction are major sources of conflict among wealthier families and recommends premarital workshops to prepare couples for married life.

She also identifies incompatible marriages, particularly among middle-class families, as a significant contributor to divorce when differences in temperament and expectations become irreconcilable.

Lack of centralized data

Khan and Mushtaq agree that Pakistan lacks a centralized judicial database for recording khula, divorce and other family law cases, making reliable nationwide statistics difficult to compile. Instead, individual courts maintain separate records, preventing researchers from accurately assessing national trends.

Mushtaq notes there is no unified system for classifying divorce-related cases. Unless an individual file is examined, she says, it is often impossible to determine whether proceedings involve divorce, khula, maintenance or post-divorce matters.

Separate recordkeeping by district and high courts further complicates efforts to compile comprehensive national data. District court records provide the clearest picture of family disputes, she says, but collecting and consolidating information from courts across Pakistan remains a formidable challenge.

Without a centralized judicial database, she argues, drawing reliable nationwide conclusions about divorce and khula trends remains difficult.