Mohana Muniandy also wants the government to make it compulsory for non-Muslims to take a HIV test before they tie the knot.

In the petition on change.org, Mohana said such courses will educate couples on married life and how to resolve conflicts.

“Couples should be taught about their rights, duties and responsibilities in a marriage.

“By introducing this course, couples can better understand and be aware of the challenges they may face, and at the same time make them more open in entering married life.”

She claimed that many divorces were caused by “petty reasons”.

When contacted, Mohana claimed that while some non-Muslim couples do undergo a marriage course it was not made compulsory by the state. Neither are HIV tests.

Last year, the statistics department revealed that the number of divorces increased 12% to 56,975 in 2019 from 50,862, the year before.

Non-Muslim divorces increased 8.3% to 11,473 in 2019 from 10,593 recorded in 2018.