|
Magic Kingdoms old maids
EFLLast year the Ministry of Planning issued a report on the number of unmarried women in Saudi Arabia â an alarming 1. 5 million. Dr. Abdullah Al-Fawzan, a sociologist at King Saud University, later produced a study about hazards to the Saudi families, in which he cited unmarried women. He also listed a number of reasons for this. One of these reasons, he said, was that the mindset or prejudices of people in the Kingdom have not changed over the years. Heâs not just making this up. He said that as people moved from a rural to a metropolitan environment over the decades, this should have meant a concomitant change in customs and social norms â including how girls get married â but that has not happened. In the past, a girlâs family had to wait for a suitable man to come forward with his family and propose. Because towns and villages were small and most people knew one another, tying the knot was not a problem. [âŠ.] Now in big cities, where residents number in their millions and few people even know their next-door neighbors, it is common for a Saudi woman to continue to be single into her late twenties hoping and waiting for fate to come knocking on her door. [âŠ.] It remains a social taboo for a woman to propose to a man, or even for the father of a single girl to mention that he has a daughter to the parents of an eligible bachelor. The Magic Kingdom needs a Sadie Hawkins Day. The enormous cost of marriage is another reason why many women remain single. Last year, Arab News published a report that the average cost of tying the knot for a Saudi man is SR165,000. Expenses include dowry, the cost for wedding parties for men and women, rent, furniture, gold and jewelry, home appliances, and so forth. If the first paycheck for most Saudi college graduates is SR4,000 in the government sector, how long will it take for them to save up to get married, even if they save half their salary? [âŠ] Priorities of Saudi women have also changed. In the past, a Saudi girl was brought up to think that her first priority in life was marriage. That came first and everything else followed. Now, due to the economic and social changes in our society, a Saudi girlâs first priority is finishing her studies. Her second priority would be to find a job. And only her third priority would be marriage. Bearing in mind that most Saudi men prefer brides between the ages of 16 and 25, that means that it is mostly likely that when a girl graduates from college, if no one comes forward to ask for her hand during her college years or soon after, she is most likely to become a spinster because she will seem old in the eyes of most Saudi men. Of course there are other factors contributing to the growing number of unmarried women, not least among them that tribal laws dictate that a woman cannot get married to a man who is not a member of her tribe. [âŠ.] Meanwhile Saudi men continue to look for brides abroad. Itâs a whole lot cheaper. Posted by: GK 2004-02-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=27015 |