MODERNIZATION AND DIVORCE - CONTRASTING TRENDS IN ISLAMIC SOUTHEAST-ASIA AND THE WEST

During the 1960s and 1970s, divorce rates rose to unprecedented levels in Western countries but plummeted in Islamic Southeast Asia from ini tially very high values in the 1950s and earlier, continuing thereafte r to fall to levels well below those in the West. In Islamic Southeast Asia, explanations emphasize radical change in the mate selection con text, linked in particular to extended periods of education for girls, whereby the couples contracting marriage gained a greater stake in it s success. Greater wealth, less polygyny, and social and religious pre ssures to tighten divorce procedures all played a role. In Western cou ntries, by contrast, increased emphasis on individualism and postmater ialist values are usually stressed. In the West, promotion of women's wellbeing emphasized the ease of breaking from unsatisfactory marriage s; in Islamic Southeast Asia, the avoidance of entering into such marr iages. Although sharing some common elements, the two regions started from such different situations that their divorce trends must be expla ined in their own terms rather than according to a universalist theory of divorce.