Arabs are divorcing more often

A generation ago, Arab divorcees tended to be objects of scorn. “No virginity, no dowry,” sniffed Adel Imam, Egypt’s leading actor, in “Halfout”, a film in the 1980s. Today they are often heroines, confronting bastions of patriarchy in courtroom, mosque and marital bed. A big hit across the Arab world last Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting (and feasting on television), was “Fatin Amal Harbi”, an Egyptian soap opera about a mother escaping from her abusive ex-husband. “Pop culture had more impact than decades of fighting for our rights,” says a female Palestinian campaigner.