Changes and new developments here have affected the norms of the country, so the government needs new policies to better protect and prepare the families and the society amid a changing world, said the director of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, Women Department. The director said the country also needs to look at other countries’ experiences to learn from them. “I think we need to try to develop our family policies and security policies. We have them already but we should look into improving them to better prepare the country amid this changing world. Changes in the country and new developments have affected the values of the families. Forums like this is something we welcome to discuss these issues,” Noor Al Malki, director of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs’ Women Department, said during the Expert Group Meeting organised by the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development, Family Policy Division and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) Division for Social Policy and Development. Al Malki said the government should look into having more forums and meetings to help Qatar prepare for the future and how the changes it will bring can affect the families in the society. “We need to prepare our society to better protect us. Already, the divorce rate in the country is very high. Around 30 percent of the marriages here end in divorce and now, we have more and more women who opt not to marry. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing for women not to marry, but these are things that, in the end, will affect our society and the family unit. Other countries have experienced these, as what was shared by the other representatives in this meeting, so I think we should also try to learn from their experiences,” she said. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=April2009&file=Local_News2009041625147.xml

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