RIYADH, 20 March 2004 — The Saudi village of Al-Yanfu says it has no unmarried women because its elders have limited bride-prices to SR10 ($2.7) and banned all extravagant spending and displays associated with traditional Arab weddings.
“All villagers are happy with the decision and thank God we have no unmarried women,” said Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ribah in a report published in the daily Al-Riyadh yesterday.
The village elders of Al-Yanfu, in the southwestern province of Asir, have come up with a “code of conduct” that serves as a guide on how to limit wedding costs, according to the daily.
The code forbids pre-wedding banquets and gifts to the bride or what is known as the “queen’s trunk”.
As well as the bride price to her family, the groom gives a one-off sum of SR20,000 ($5,400) to the bride to cover clothing and jewelry and is “forbidden to accompany the bride shopping so as not to be shamed to pay more money.”
Other measures introduced by the village to save on wedding costs include limiting the number of animals slaughtered on the wedding night to 10, inviting only close relatives, celebrating the wedding at home or in a tent and “forbidding completely entertainment or videotaping of the wedding.”
Parents of young women throughout the Gulf and Saudi Arabia regularly demand high bride prices from bridegrooms’ families to help pay for deluxe wedding banquets. Many in Saudi Arabia fear that this has driven many Saudi men to marry foreigners in order to avoid the high costs of a local bride, thereby forcing many Saudi women into spinsterhood.
