Essay: Marriage System In UAE Evolves Over Time.

Methodology to be followed

Question:

Discuss about the UAE Society in the Past Marriage.

Marriage is considered to be the base of the family system in the United State of Arab. According to the law of UAE, marriage is considered to be the only legal bond between a man and a woman who wants to establish a relationship and form a family. The marriage law of UAE identifies marriage as a legal contract between a man and a woman. However, when it comes to marriage, several changes can be noticed. The aim of this research is to analyze the changes in the marriage system of UAE over the time.  The objectives of the research are as follows:

1. To compare the norms and traditions followed in the past versus nowadays associated with marriage
2. To analyze the changes assessed

Methodology to be followed:

In order to conduct the research, both quantitative as well as qualitative research methods have been followed. Quantitative analysis includes conducting an interview with Mr. and Mrs. X who resides in Abu Dhabi for more than 60 years. Considering the fact that the couple had got married 48 years ago, their perspective about marriage can be understood through the interview. Apart from that, the book named ‘Sips of the Coffee' has been used as a primary source. Moreover, as secondary sources, text book along with another research paper has been used.

From the information collected from the interview, it was clear that marriage system has changed a lot in the past years. As being stated by Mr X, in the past, women used to get married at a really tender age of 13 or 14 years. For men, the ideal age for marriage is considered to be 18 years. However, nowadays, the average age for women to get married is 25 years and that for man is 27 to 30 years. Usually the process of marriage in the past, as stated b Mr. X, started with a meeting between the families of the couple and ends with the consummation of the weddings (Ortashi et al., 2013). In this era of modernization, the number of love marriages in UAE has increased considerably. However, like the past eras, even in this era, the UAE government put emphasis on the promotion of Emiratis to emiratis marriage. An outsider faces trouble to marry a resident of UAE even now. In the past, both the bride and groom needed to have consent for the wedding otherwise the marriage was declared to be not-Islamic. The groom was invited to the bride's house of course in the presence of the bride’s parents. Thus, it can be understood that sex before marriage was highly prohibited in the past. When it comes to this era, a couple living under a single roof is not considered to be legal. According to the rules and regulation of the government of UAE, unmarried couples should not be allowed to stay in a hotel together.

From the statement of Mr. X, it can be clearly understood that marriages in the past involved a lot of ceremonies and those ceremonies were celebrated for a good number of days. Wedding preparation usually lasted for seven days. The weddings were totally free from western influences. Neither the bride nor the groom’s families were found to invest a lot of money on a wedding. However, a huge amount of dowry was given to the groom from the bride’s family. The foods that were served were made at home (Khamis, 2018). Bride and groom were not allowed to see each other before the marriage ceremony is over. In contrast to the marriage system of the past, UAE weddings in the modern days have got influenced by the western culture. However, large parts of the wedding ceremony still hold to traditions. A lot of money is invested in the preparation of the wedding. However, in several countries of UAE, the dowry system has been prohibited.

Age of Marriage in UAE

From the analysis of the book, it is found that traditional Arab wedding bears several numbers of similarities with the modern days Bedouin weddings. However, several traditions were there which were unique from one region to another. From the above mentioned book, it has been found that Khalaf Bin Ahmed Al-Otaibah, popularly known as the pearl king, had married 16 times in his life span (Abdulraheman, 2014). The last marriage conducted by him was at the age of 80 years. The mentioned individual resided in UAE during the early 90s. From the above statement, it can be clearly understood that polygamy at that period of time was a highly common phenomenon in UAE. People used to have several numbers of wives and there was no limitation of the age for marriage for men. In the early UAE, polygamy was encouraged. When it comes to this era of modernization, Polygamy is still legal in the United States of Arab. However, like the majority of the traditional Muslim nation, polygamy is frequently practiced by residents of UAE.  On that basis, it can be understood that not much changes have occurred when it comes to polygamy. However, unlike the early day, the government of UAE has imposed a law which allows men to marry 4 women in the lifespan. Women, however, are not allowed to have more than one husband.

“The religious communities in Trucial Oman at the turn of the twentieth century”

From the above-mentioned article, it is found that in the traditional society of the Trucial States the customs related to marriage as well as divorce are in accordance with the Islam. The customs related to marriage forms the base of the above mentioned tribe. According to the wedding rules, girls are given for marriage to the family members (Khamis, 2018). The closer is the family member, the better it is. Women in their teens are made to marry their close relatives that include their first cousins. However, different parts of UAE had different rules. In some of the societies located in Arabian peninsula, the elder son of a family has no right to claim on the daughter of their parental uncle. Marriage with the first cousin from either side is equally welcomed. In cases, no suitable life partner is found from the wider circle of the family, the suitable groom is searched from the neighbourhood and from families who have the same status in the society. In cases where the parents have to allow their daughter to marry in a family whose member are not well-known to the bride, high incentives in the form of economic or social advantage are demanded by the parent of the bride. If the above-mentioned type of marriage became successful, the further relation between the families is encouraged.

In the past, it was a social custom to let a girl get married as soon as they hit the puberty stage. From childhood, it was taught that marriage and childbearing is the most crucial and desirable action in a girl’s life. Girls were considered to be a liability by the parents as well as the society once they hit puberty (Nowais, 2015). Additionally, parents feared that if girls are left unmarried after puberty, they might succumb to seduction and might bring disgrace to the family. After marriage, girls were considered to be the liability of the husband. Power was given to a man with the help of which a husband can easily get a divorce from his wife just to punish her. As been discussed earlier, in the majority of cases, the age of the husband was not more than 16 years. After marriage, in the majority of cases, girls were found to be residing with her relatives whom she knew very well before marriage. In several cases, girls were found to reside in their own house with her husband. The house members helped the newly married girl to raise the new household to great extent. The whole process of the marriage system starting from finding suitable groom within the family, contacting with their parents and arranging the financial aspect of the marriage was chiefly done by the women of the family.

Considering the fact that several UAE culture has been adopted by the countries in UAE, the marriage system has changed a lot over time. In spite of the fact that marriage between cousins is increasing in UAE, modern UAE women are free to decide at which age they want to get married. As been declared earlier, the average of the marriage of a woman in UAE is currently 25 years, UAE women are found to be selecting their life partners by their own.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that several changes can be detected when it comes to comparison of marriage in UAE in the past versus in the present. Unlike the earlier days, the tradition of offering dowry both to the groom as well as the bride has reduced. Moreover, women in this era of modernization have the right to get married when they want to. However, it is noticed that in several fields traditional thoughts have not changed. Polygamy is highly prevalent in UAE. Not only that, the marriage between cousins have also increased in the mentioned nation.

Reference list

Abdulraheman, A. (2014). between Sips ofCoffee . Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Authority of Tourism and Culture, 18-20

Khamis, J. (2018). Planning to get married in Dubai? Read this before you say ‘I do’. GulfNews. Retrieved 16 April 2018, from https://gulfnews.com/news/uae/society/planning-to-get-married-in-dubai-read-this-before-you-say-i-do-1.1638437

Nowais, S. (2015). Polygamy with equality is ‘impossible’, says Emirati spouse. The National. Retrieved 16 April 2018, from https://www.thenational.ae/uae/polygamy-with-equality-is-impossible-says-emirati-spouse-1.120356

Ortashi, O., Raheel, H., Shalal, M., & Osman, N. (2013). Awareness and knowledge about human papillomavirus infection and vaccination among women in UAE. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 14(10), 6077-6080.