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29 March 2024

Mosques lecture Emiratis to cut wedding costs

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By Staff

UAE authorities will resort to mosques to persuade Emiratis to slash wedding costs which they say are putting financial burdens on new families and leading to post-marriage disputes, the press said on Tuesday.

The state Marriage Fund, which was created by late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan more than two decades ago, said it would sponsor lectures at mosques during the fasting month of Ramadan to urge nationals to reduce wedding costs following a sharp increase in such expenses.

The lectures will mainly target families of those who are planning to marry their children and are registered for wedding grants with the Marriage Fund.

“The lectures will be staged at mosques during Ramadan with the aim of creating awareness among nationals not to exaggerate in wedding expenses,” the Fund’s acting director Habiba Al Housani said.

“These lectures are part of an ongoing process to educate our people to accept lower dowries and wedding expenses…the Fund will use every occasion to educate our youth on the need to be reasonable in such expenses.”

Housani said high wedding costs would only increase financial pressures on couples after marriage and this could result in marital problems.

Thousands of wedding Emiratis have benefited from the Marriage Fund, which provides a conditional grant of Dh70,000 to each bridegroom.

Over the past few years, the Fund has expanded its services to settling marriage disputes and extending technical advice to newly-wed couples besides staging lectures and seminars on stable local marriage life.

The problem of high wedding costs emerged in the UAE and other conservative Gulf countries after the discovery of oil and involves spending large sums of money on wedding parties and demands by brides’ fathers for high dowries, the money paid by a bridegroom to his bride under Islamic law.