This, Telenisa said, was largely due to parents’ concerns on child custody during the pandemic and the ban on interstate travel.

Based on its 2020 report, it said the interstate travel ban restricted parents who hold visitation rights from visiting their children.

“The risk of getting infected with the Covid-19 virus makes the parent with custody reluctant to grant visitations to the other parent.

“Hence, these situations triggered a rise in child custody disputes throughout 2020.”

Meanwhile, “fasakh” (divorce prompted by women) still made up the majority of enquiries it received in 2020, at 68%.

This remains the highest number of inquiries for divorce since 2016.

(“Fasakh” is a method of divorce prompted by the wife, particularly when the husband refuses to grant the divorce, or “talak”.)

It said this meant that women were becoming more aware of their rights within their marriages and were no longer tolerating marital injustices.

Other enquiries it received in 2020 were enquiries on visitation rights (39%) and child abduction (9%).