62% of Muslim women were awarded custody of their children out of the 1132 Muslim divorces last year, involving children below the age of 21.

The remaining 38% of were cases where custody was either awarded to the father or to both parents under joint custody.

On average, each woman or man had custody of approximately 2 children and the average age of each child was 11 years old.

This was a written answer from the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, in response to the question of how many women were given custody of their children in divorce proceedings in 2008, a question raised by Mdm Halimah Yacob.

She also asked what was the average number of children that each had custody of; and what was the average age of the children.

Dr Balakrishnan said 3,627 out of 6,328 civil divorce writs filed nationwide involved children below the age of 21. However detailed statistics on the age of the children and which parent had custody of them is currently unavailable. Therefore, the ministry is only able to provide answers to Mdm Halimah's questions based on the Muslim community.