Qualifying Betrothed Couples in Kuwait: Does Legislation Protect the Family?

 Qualifying betrothed couples in Kuwait is no longer merely an awareness initiative that young people can voluntarily benefit from before establishing their families. It has become a legal prerequisite prior to the authentication of a marriage contract under Decree-Law No. (122) of 2026, which amends certain provisions of Authentication Law No. (10) of 2020.

The amendment stipulates the necessity for both marrying parties to complete a qualification program. It charges the Minister of Justice with specifying its curriculum, duration, completion requirements, and the executing entity. Furthermore, it prescribes a penalty of up to one year in prison, a fine not exceeding one thousand Kuwaiti dinars, or both, for any notary or marriage registrar (Ma'zoon) who authenticates a contract before verifying the completion of the program, according to reports published by the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

On October 7, the Kuwaiti Council of Ministers announced its approval of the draft amendment to the Authentication Law. The amendment addresses the regulation of personal status matters—including marriage, separation, and reconciliation—alongside developing electronic authentication procedures and qualifying betrothed couples.

Questions Arising from the Amendments

The new legislation comes in the context of official interest in developing personal status procedures, enhancing the protection of family rights, and qualifying betrothed couples. However, it raises a question that extends beyond mere legal compliance: Is qualifying betrothed couples and subjecting them to a training program sufficient to make them more capable of building a stable life? What skills and knowledge should they acquire before assuming the responsibilities of shared life?

The importance of this debate increases alongside official indicators showing the volume of work undertaken by family counseling institutions. According to the 2024 Statistical Yearbook of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Justice, the Family Counseling Department recorded 6,032 visitors during 2024, compared to 5,899 in 2023—an increase of 133 visitors, or 2.3%.

Preventive Legislation

Requiring premarital qualification represents a shift in handling family stability, placing cognitive readiness among the conditions prior to contract authentication rather than leaving it entirely to the personal efforts and individual experiences of betrothed couples. The significance of this step is not limited to the mandatory nature of the program, but extends to how it is designed and executed, and its capacity to respond to the realistic challenges facing couples.

Providing a broader explanation of the philosophy behind the amendments, Kuwaiti Minister of Justice Nasser Al-Sumait stated in press remarks that the project includes mandatory referral to the Family Dispute Settlement Center before authenticating a divorce or Khul', offering an opportunity for reconciliation and preserving family cohesion, while observing legal exceptions. He added that this preventive approach extends from marriage preparation to attempting dispute resolution prior to divorce authentication, serving the family's best interests and aligning with the Islamic orientation toward preserving family cohesion.

The "Wefaq" Experience

It is important to emphasize that Kuwait is not starting from scratch in this context. On July 17, 2023, the Ministry of Justice announced weekly year-round training sessions within the "Wefaq" premarital qualification program. Supervised by the Family and Arbitration Sector and executed by the Family Counseling Department, the program aimed to raise awareness of spousal rights and foster a positive view of the family.

In statements to Al-Anba newspaper at the time, Eman Al-Saleh, then-Director of the Family Counseling Department at the Ministry of Justice, explained the program's objectives and content. She noted that it covered Sharia, legal, psychological, and social aspects, seeking to acquaint participants with the rights and duties of spouses, the obstacles they might face, and ways to address them.

For his part, Dr. Bassam Al-Shatti, who participated in delivering the program, focused on the importance of distributing responsibilities and duties between spouses and preparing to overcome the hurdles of shared life. This point transcends theoretical knowledge of rights to focus on daily implementation, as a relationship's success relies not only on each party knowing their rights and obligations, but also demands dialogue, mutual understanding, and responsible management of differing expectations and pressures.

Islamic Jurisprudence Approves Conditionally

Within the scholarly debate on the mandating of qualification, researchers Abdulrahman Ibrahim Al-Kharaz, Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Jurisprudence and Islamic Studies at the Kuwait International Law School, and Abdulrahman Mohammad Al-Balool, Assistant Professor in the Department of General Courses at Kuwait Technical College, addressed the issue in a study titled "The Ruling on Requiring a Qualification Course for Betrothed Couples: An Applied Jurisprudential Study – State of Kuwait as a Model." The study was published in the Journal of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University, Volume 44, Issue 2, 2026.

The study examined the Sharia basis for requiring betrothed couples to undertake a qualification course, its objectives, and its relationship to divorce causes in Kuwait, drawing on jurisprudential evidence, relevant studies, statistics, and field experiments.

The researchers concluded that requiring these courses prior to marriage is permissible under Sharia, considering that enhancing awareness and knowledge of rulings related to the marital relationship can contribute to supporting family stability.

However, utilizing this conclusion requires distinguishing between the legitimacy of the legal requirement and the program's effectiveness on the ground. Proving that an action is permissible under Sharia does not automatically mean every qualification course will yield the same results. According to the researchers, effectiveness depends on content quality, the competence of the trainers, the level of participant engagement, and their ability to apply what they learned after marriage.

The study thus opens room for a discussion that goes beyond the debate over mandatory enforcement to address a question more directly connected to practical application: How can a qualification program be designed to achieve its purposes, rest on empirical evidence, and benefit from Kuwaiti expertise in family counseling?

Measuring Impact

The importance of evaluation becomes prominent when examining statements by officials and participants in the "Wefaq" experience, which served as the foundation for the current amendments. In a report published by Al-Anba newspaper on June 5, 2023, Dr. Fahad Al-Dhaen, then-Assistant Undersecretary for Family and Arbitration Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, pointed out that discussing the program's impact on reducing divorce in numerical terms was premature, emphasizing the need to monitor participant benefit and evaluate the program.

In a later report, the newspaper quoted Dr. Bassam Al-Shatti as estimating that premarital qualification programs in Gulf countries contributed to reducing divorce rates by approximately 25%. However, this percentage cannot be considered an independent measurement of "Wefaq’s" impact in Kuwait without referencing the original study on which it relies to understand its methodology and the period covered.

This requires that the implementation of the new law be accompanied by periodic evaluation that distinguishes between participant numbers, the degree of skill acquisition, and the actual effect on marital relationships. Divorce rates are influenced by multiple economic and social factors and cannot be attributed solely to a qualification program without a methodical study.

Early Awareness

Preparation for married life is not limited to a course taken prior to the marriage contract. Dr. Nouriya Mashari Al-Khafaji, Professor of Psychology and Psychological Counseling at Kuwait University, addressed this issue in an exploratory study on higher education students' views regarding betrothed couples' need for marital counseling, published previously in the Journal of Education at Kuwait University.

The study covered 395 male and female students, alongside interviews with 10 personal status judges and two lawsuit officers. It demonstrated the need for premarital counseling, and Dr. Al-Khafaji proposed linking the marriage grant to passing a counseling course, establishing premarital counseling centers across Kuwait's governorates, and introducing a mandatory course on family relations in schools.

Although the study predates the "Wefaq" program and the new legislation, it provides an academic foundation that can be utilized to develop the qualification system, rather than serving as an evaluation of the current law's results.

In the end, the new Kuwaiti legislation opens the door toward developing the concept of marital readiness. However, its success will not be determined merely by obligating betrothed couples to complete a program, but by its capacity to transform qualification into lasting knowledge, practical skills, and continuous support.

While the law sets the regulatory framework, the responsibility for building a stable family remains shared among official, educational, and social institutions. The true test is whether qualification becomes the beginning of awareness that extends throughout married life, rather than a formal procedure ending with the authentication of the contract.