AL-BAHA, 27 May 2008 — Faced with a barrage of complaints from young men who are unable to marry due to high dowry demands, a tribe in this southern Saudi city has ruled that tribe members wishing to get married cannot pay more than SR50,000 in dowry, the Al-Madinah daily reported yesterday. Couples who exceed this limit will be asked to pay SR10,000 to the Al-Bir Charity which helps couples from low-income families get married. In Islam, a dowry is a mandatory gift of money, possessions or property made by the husband to the wife. It becomes her exclusive property. The amount of dowry given should not burden the groom. However, in recent years, increasingly extravagant dowry demands have become a major obstacle to marriage and many Saudi men have had to defer marriage because they are unable to afford the money demanded by the parents of their prospective bride and the costs of the ceremony itself.
