Saudi Arabia has an average one divorce case every half an hour, one of the highest rates in the world, and experts blame the contractual Misyar marriage for the problem.

In 2010, the Gulf Kingdom recorded 18,765 divorces, a rate of more than 35 per cent of the marriages, according to official statistics.

“This is far above the international rate of between 18 and 22 per cent…in some years, it exceeded 40 per cent in the Kingdom,” said Sheikh Saeed Al Yousuf, head of courts in the northeastern Saudi town of Tabuk.