JEDDAH – The Ministry of Justice will study a proposal to provide marriage registrars with background information and criminal records of anyone who wants to get married before a marriage contract is executed. The ministry said future husbands and wives can learn about the criminal history of each other before signing the marriage contract. A number of governmental agencies will help the ministry study the proposal, which if implemented will provide detailed information about the marital status of contracting parties and cases, if any, they have been involved in. Once this information is available, the future husband and wife can decide whether to proceed with the marriage or not. After ascertaining that the future husband and wife are serious and want to get married, the official registrar of marriage contracts should write a letter to the concerned authorities to provide both spouses with each other's criminal records so they can view it. The ministry urges everyone who is getting married to be frank and straightforward about their histories and not hide anything. The proposal aims to reduce the number of divorce cases and ensure that both spouses start on the right foot because they will be completely aware of each other's criminal history, if any. Ahmed Al-Moubi, a marriage official in Jeddah, said government departments have not yet reached the level of being able to share information and records quickly. He also believed that the ministry should not interfere in such personal decisions. “The Prophet (pbuh) asked us to look for partners with good manners and some people might have made some mistakes when they are young. “Why should we reopen the closed page of a young man's past?” Al-Moubi added that it is up to the bride's or groom's families to investigate someone's past, not the marriage official or the Ministry of Justice. However, Nada Shareif, a 36-year-old employee and mother of four, said she married when she was 18 and her husband had a criminal record for possession of drugs. “We didn't know back then, but I found out about it a year after our marriage. “It was for hashish possession in his teenage years. My dad wanted me to get a divorce but I was already pregnant.” Shareif said having a criminal record is not as bad as it seems since her husband is good to her and their children. “He wasn't a drug addict but it was just a phase in his life. “I think the Ministry of Justice shouldn't go on with the study because it's useless, plus implementing such a thing will take years probably.” On the other hand, Mohammed Al-Oufi said that when his daughter's husband proposed, he asked his friends in the police to do a background check on him. He said: “You want to make sure that your daughter doesn't end up with a criminal. “We asked around and everyone said he is a good man, but there are always hidden things in anyone's life so I believe the ministry's study should continue and they have to apply this option because you can never trust people now.”
