The Director of the Family Guidance and Guidance Department in the marriage fund, Habiba Issa Al -Hosani, revealed to «Emirates Today» that the average costs of the wedding of the citizen are more than 500 thousand dirhams, most of which are loans from banks, noting that the costs only include the seizure of wedding halls, foods, drinks and musical teams, adding To the bride’s jewelry and its equipment and the clothes of the bride, without calculating the costs or value of obtaining or furnishing a house.
Al -Hosani stated that the number of beneficiaries of the fund’s grant exceeded 60,000 beneficiaries, during 17 years, that is, since its establishment in 1993, and the fund finally organized in Khor Fakkan a collective wedding that included 43 grooms at a cost of about 600 thousand dirhams that were carried out equally between the marriage fund and the municipal council in Khor Fakkan.
In detail, Habiba Al -Hosani stressed that there is an unjustified exaggeration by most citizens when establishing their joys in order to show off in front of others, in light of the high prices of marriage requirements, noting that the lowest costs of marriage can be incurred by a person inside the state that cannot be less in any way From the case for 100 thousand dirhams, and the wedding is in the narrowest limits.
Negative
She added that negative values are still controlling family spending in the state, which hinders societal development, and the research conducted by the fund indicates that spending on dowries and weddings occupies an advanced rank over other spending, and that the motive for this is not rational as much as it is a desire for blind imitation Interest and social pride, in this regard, is required for a strategy in which all official, private and private state institutions cooperate to bring about a qualitative change in negative values to be replaced by the values of moderation, wisdom and economy in spending.
Al -Hosani emphasized that the wedding costs differ from one emirate to another as well as from one region to another within the same emirate, although the prevailing pattern is the unnecessary glow, as the costs of the wedding in Abu Dhabi differ from it in Fujairah, for example in terms of attendance and the costs of the wedding, explaining that then A hall in a hotel in Abu Dhabi is booked, it will be twice the costs of reserving the same hall in the same hotel in the northern Emirates, such as Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah.
She explained that a collective wedding established by the fund in Ras Al -Khaimah revealed that the hall costs young people 30 thousand dirhams, while the same hall in Abu Dhabi costs 60 to 70 thousand dirhams, although the two halls provide the same services without any marked difference between them.
Al -Hosani criticized the supply of the groom’s people, the most luxurious and largest wedding halls, in addition to preparing seats, foods and drinks in an exaggerated manner, so that 500 people are sufficient, for example, although the number of invitees to the party does not exceed 300, which means that there are 200 meals and 200 seats that have been paid. Without benefiting from it.
And on the average value of the jewelry that the groom offers to his bride, Al -Hosani mentioned that this value is estimated at more than 100 thousand dirhams, although it differs from person to person, noting that this sparkle and the growing spending on weddings are not inherited customs or traditions, but it is an extraneous phenomenon on society.
She emphasized that most young people have resorted to borrowing from banks to establish their weddings to appear at the level of the rich person, who has money that leads to the emergence of several cases of stumbling between the youth. On payment of the credit bank installments.
She explained that among the positive matters that are still present in the Emirati society until now that a few families ask the husband to have an independent house for him and his wife, but most families do not impose that condition on the husband, so the young man can marry in his family’s house, indicating that this is not The strange thing about the Emirati society.
She pointed out that in one of the group wedding parties that were held in a mountainous area inside the country, some parents asked the fund to organize awareness seminars for parents and not limit themselves to young people who want to marry only, because there is a habit for young people to hold their weddings outside the area where they reside on Although there are halls in the surrounding places.
And I continued that they go to choose the best halls, no matter how far away from their homes or expensive with the aim of purifying, as each of them wants to hold a better wedding than others, whether they are relatives, neighbors or friends, as the bride also wants to do so, and that her wedding ceremony is better than the wedding of her relatives Or her friends, regardless of the costs of huge sums of money that may exceed 500 thousand dirhams, and may reach one million dirhams for some families.
Regarding the grant provided by the fund to young people who wish to marry, Al -Hosani stated that the fund provides 70 thousand dirhams a marriage grant for the young man whose monthly salary does not exceed 16 thousand dirhams.
And about the small amount of this amount compared to the costs of marriage, she said that there is no country in the region that provides such a sum a grant that does not respond to helping young people to form a family, adding that the 70,000 dirhams are not a little amount if the two brides deal wisely and rationally the expenses of their wedding ceremony.
She stated that the number of beneficiaries of the marriage grants offered by the fund exceeded the 60,000 beneficiaries until the current year, stressing that the beneficiaries of grants from all the emirates of the state, without discrimination, and that if there were two or three people who are entitled to the fund’s grant and they are from one family, the fund is granted them The full amount without regard to the fact that these beneficiaries are brothers from one family, as long as they are citizens and the conditions have been applied to them, because the fund deals with young people according to certain conditions, among which is not limiting the grant to only one person in each family.
Bank debt
Al -Hosani added that the box is aware of the youth and directs them in the pre -marriage stage and follows them later to help them start their lives and plan them and face problems and ways to avoid them, noting that the fund focuses in its lectures with the youth to make them aware of the need to move away at the beginning of their marital life from falling under the debts The bank and the sparkle unnecessarily, so that the young man does not falter at the beginning of his life because of the accumulation of debts on him and his inability to pay, indicating that the young man should plan for his future family life well so that he can take the responsibility of his wife and children and be able to live the cost of living, because the young man who His life begins with debts, his family life ends with failure.
She announced that the fund is currently conducting two studies, one of them on family stability, which includes discussing family social transformations and problems for all groups of society by offering questionnaires in the various emirates of the state aimed at knowing the problems facing families, and the second study focuses on rationalizing the costs of marriage, pointing out that these two will be completed The two studies at the end of this year.
She continued that the fund focuses on TV awareness programs more than advertising, and that the fund is a service institution, and it is currently planning to conduct awareness programs to encourage young people to marry and rationalize family spending, and these TV programs will start after the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Al -Hosani indicated that the marriage fund confirms the necessity of conducting pre -marriage checks and urging the importance of documenting marital relations and helping families on how to benefit from income, by educating them on how to develop a family budget, develop a family economic strategy, expense schedule, compare them with inputs, benefit from the surplus, and give families consulting and assistance To put the family budget, “studying the case for the family”, in terms of the economic, financial and social situation, and helping it to develop mechanisms that can advance the economic level, adding that the fund seeks to help families put an integrated family program in terms of internal relations in the family and know the roles and their expectations and enhance their skills in Dialogue and understanding.
She added that the fund demands the two families of the newlyweds to give the instructions and advice required for them and not to interfere directly in their lives by their families, and to try to reform between them in the event of any discord between them with the lack of inclination to any side of the other, and giving the young man and the girl freedom of choice in marriage with the necessity of monitoring and interfering with advice And guidance on how to choose and its foundations before marriage, with the study of social diseases resulting from the anxiety of children such as aggression, the eras of conditions, the hatred of parents and divorce, and the development of psychological psychological programs to rehabilitate the children of the socially, study and psychologically divorced. She continued that the fund works to provide seminars, lectures and workshops in how to help the children of the divorced people to adapt to psychological and social adaptation, and to develop media programs on social, psychological and study problems for the children of the divorced people and how to solve them with support and enhance the efforts of the marriage fund and women’s associations, and the centers of sponsoring events, divorced women, widows and other civil and social institutions And the family to contribute to reducing divorce rates year after year.
Al -Hosani explained that the fund called for spreading family awareness regarding the resolution of marital disputes and methods of raising children and educating citizens about the negative effects caused by drinking alcohol and drug use.
It is noteworthy that the Zakat Fund had conducted a comprehensive study of the divorce in the country in cooperation with the Emirates University.
