Under the patronage of Prof. Mohamed Diaa Zein El-Abedeen, President of Ain Shams University, Prof. Ghada Farouk, Vice President of the University for Community Service and Environmental Development Affairs and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for Middle East Research and Future Studies, Dr. Hatem Al-Abd, Director of the Center, delivered a symposium entitled “Divorce and Widowhood and Their Risks to Social Security,” at the Faculty of Education at Ain Shams University.

The symposium was held under the supervision of Prof. Safaa Shehata, Dean of the Faculty, and the symposium was moderated by Dr. Neven Zakaria, Head of the Department of Philosophy and Sociology, and organized by Prof. Asmaa Nabil Ehsan, and Dr. Amal Mohamed Rabie.

The symposium began with the speech of Prof. Neven Zakaria welcoming Dr. Hatem Al-Abd, as she expressed her great happiness at the Faculty of Education hosting Dr. Al-Abd, because of his abundant knowledge and presentation style that is characterized by being simple and clear. Her Excellency also stressed the importance of the symposium’s topic, which is a review of the book “Divorce and Widowhood and Their Risks to Social Security,” written by Dr. Al-Abd, especially because of his comprehensiveness and simplicity, and his treatment of the most minute details of the relationship between men and women, and the role of society in all its bodies in confronting this dilemma, in light of the rise in divorce rates in recent times to the point that it has become a widespread societal phenomenon, which necessitated the necessity of discussing this issue. The issue affects societal peace and threatens to undermine the foundations of the Egyptian family.

Then, Dr. Hatem Al-Abd began his speech, thanking the distinguished professors for their warm reception, stressing the need for academics to carry out their educational and reformative role, and pay attention to the problems and concerns of their society. Hence his keenness to write this book to address this phenomenon, find out its causes and consequences, and confronting the negative ideas inherited within Egyptian society based on prejudices and virtual disdain for widows and divorced women.

Hence, this book includes two parts: Diagnosis of the disease and prescription of the medication.

Dr. Al-Abd, pointed to the necessity of distinguishing between two types of divorce: Therapeutic divorce, epidemic divorce; The first is the divorce ordered by God Almighty in the event of the impossibility of living together between spouses, while the last is what takes place shortly after marriage for flimsy reasons, the most important of which is the lack of awareness and the spread of false ideas that are foreign to our society and imported from the West, the main goal of which is Colonizing minds, destroying the Egyptian family, which is the nucleus of society, and not the individual like European societies, and thus undermining the foundations of Egyptian society.

As confirmed by Dr. Al-Abd, in his speech, stated that marriage is considered a sacred bond and a strong covenant, and the principle in Islam is the eternity of marriage, the unity of the wife, not polygamy, which has specific conditions and restrictions. However, those who were not successful in their first experience must be encouraged to repeat the marriage experience on sound foundations. Learning from previous mistakes and sensing the religiousness and sanctity of the marital relationship.

Finally, Dr. Hatem Al-Abd stressed the need for the state, with all its institutions, as well as civil society with all its bodies, to spread the religious and cultural awareness necessary to confront this phenomenon, and to correct many misconceptions and inherited negative ideas, whether by holding training and rehabilitation courses for young people about to get married, or through institutions. Educational, or through various media and social networking.

After the end of Dr. Hatem's speech, the discussion was opened to the presents and all their inquiries were answered.

At the end of the symposium, Prof. Neven Zakaria, presenting a certificate of honor to Dr. Hatem Al-Abd, in appreciation for his distinguished effort.