Family woes [Archives:2002/31/Culture]

BY MAYASA MOHAMMED GAWAD
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
TAIZ BUREAU
The social changes witnessed in the last few years have been reflected themselves negatively on the human relationships in Yemen. As an outcome, the family unity phenomenon does not exist any more. This causes family members to suffer tremendously and results in the collapse of the pillars of society, namely the family. A family with no affections left to feel and no love to give cannot build a progressing nation. Hatred, the inability to be responsible, family disputes, bad financial conditions of families, and the ignorance of the importance of human relations are all factors behind the suffering of children.
As a consequence of disputes, divorce comes to the picture. This consequently affects the lives of sons and daughters in horrific ways. The ever-climbing prices of goods and increasing living expenses also cause tremendous suffering for children because their fathers would work day and night and yet not be able to provide a decent living. This also results in divorce on many occasions thinking that by divorce the father would get rid of economic burdens. The divorced mother would then continue the journey of suffering along with her children. She would try to supply her house with food and other needs with very limited financial resources.
Unethical behavior, psychological problems, cruelty, feelings of insecurity and injustice and death of feelings are all factors behind the suffering of children and collapse of families. But above all, the disappearance of family unity values is the major reason behind all of that.
As a result of this, children wander in the streets playing game of vagabondage and immorality, wasting hours of time that could have been used more adequately. They, in most cases, tempt to steal for lack of money and their inability to gain education leads them to become unemployment in the future.
In many other cases, early marriage results from lack of family unity. Families with internal disputes tempt to get rid of their daughters quickly first of all to reduce financial expenses, secondly to reduce the number of dependents in the house. But this is specifically widely spread among the low classes of society that lack proper education. The father forces his daughter to marry in an extremely early age disregarding all her human rights and pushing her to start bearing the responsibility of becoming a wife and mother without the proper knowledge or guidance. The father sees this as the best way to relieve himself and his daughter and to grant her a happy life. However, he forgets that due to her little experience, she may soon come back home as a divorced mother of a child or more. In this particular situation, the father would have to carry more burdens than any time before. This will add to the miseries of the family and bring more pessimisms and psychological problems to the grandchildren. Who pays the price for the suffering of grandchildren, who will be neglected and would live under continuous stress and pressure?
The family is the pillar of the society. It is the family that shapes the future of the country by raising well-educated and enlightened children. What will parents lose if they deal with each other frankly with a sense of responsibility for the children? Why don’t parents show love and care to their children and raise them in a peaceful and loving family atmosphere? Why don’t they implant love and affection in their children’s souls in order to gain the fruits in the long-run? Only when they do so will they feel proud of raising a whole generation that brings development and prosperity to Yemen.

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