Why do people divorce? Because they think "I lost something rather than gained in marriage because of physical and mental damage." They want to get happiness through divorce. Do you think this thought apply to everybody? No. Here is an exception - the grandmother. Recently several suits of divorce were sued by grandmothers. They have the proper reason, but some of them lost the suits. The reason their suits were dismissed is that our society has many problems about the old and women. What is important is not these cases themselves but the background and the reason of it. So I would like to tell this problem more through one typical example.
             There is a 76-year-old grandmother. Her name is Kim Chang-Ja. Last January her divorce suit against her 83-year-old husband was dismissed even while the judges admitted that she has long been abused by him. During 53 years of marriage life, Mrs. Kim was rarely allowed to leave the house and was instead expected to perform duties such as returning quickly from the hospital to prepare food and serve him even though she had a broken leg. With little money since all the property is in her husband's property Mrs. Kim now lives with one of her daughters on whom she is financially dependent. In 1997 the wife filed the suit and won her case in a lower court. (extracted from Korea Herald, 'In my view : Till death do'em part?' written by Elisabeth Lamoureux and Anna Paradowska in February 20, 1999) But in higher her suit became failed. The judge of Seoul High Court said " The court did not find the husband's male chauvinistic attitude constituting a cause to bring a halt to the 53-year-long marriage relationship of the aged couple." The court ruled instead that the wife has the obligation to take care of the elderly husband. Judges recognized that the accused had caused difficulties to his wife, but it is not considered enough of a reason for divorce considering the customs of the time when they got marrie...