Dowry rates fixed to contain spinsterhood

An unmarried woman’s dowry has been officially
fixed at SR50,000, while for a divorcee, it would be
SR30,000.

The move follows instructions from Makkah Gov. Prince
Khaled Al-Faisal, who is also adviser to Custodian of the
Two Holy Mo
sques King Salman.The Makkah region’s Twitter account said that Prince
Khaled has directed city governors in the region to hold a
meeting to prepare a document mentioning the dowry
amounts as instructed.

A message from the emir’s office to the governors said:
“Further to what has been recently observed about the high
dowries that have contributed to the rise in the number of
spinsters, a meeting of city governors with tribal elders is
required to prepare a document identifying marriage
dowries, that should be ratified by provincial courts, and
submitted to the emir of the region.”

A recent study conducted by a faculty member at the
Islamic University, Ali Al-Zahrani, revealed that the number
of spinsters in Saudi Arabia in the current year is around 4
million as compared to nearly 1.5 million in 2010.

Ahmed Al-Sinani, an expert on social issues, attributed the
high rate to several major causes, including high dowries,
expensive functions, some parents marrying off daughters
for money, high unemployment rate among youth in recent
years, housing crisis and the absence of the role of social
and charitable institutions.

Al-Sinani considered the massive rents of wedding halls to
be one of the reasons behind the out-of-proportion
spinsterhood with prices ranging from SR50,000 to
SR90,000 which are out of reach for the majority of young
people of marriageable age.

Al-Sinani called on businessmen and charities to shoulder
their social responsibility by building wedding halls and
renting them out to young couples for a nominal fee.
Majid Al-Matrafi, another expert, stressed the need to adopt
solutions and initiatives by regional governors to facilitate
marriages for young people.

Source:arabnews