Weddings in the UAE

After the discovery of oil and the Emirati Union, the Emirati community has passed a lot of
changes and one of these changes is wedding. The Emirati wedding has changed from being
simple and cheap to become very complex and expensive. As a result, I strongly prefer
traditional wedding to modern wedding for the coming reasons.

To begin with, in the past, the wedding didn't form a financial burden on the couples and
their families. Everything was very cheap from the dowry to the wedding party. The dowry
ranged from only 500 Dhs to 1000 Dhs. In contrast, today the dowry may reach to 500,000 Dhs.
As a result, there are many young people today who marry late or can't get married at all
because of the expensive dowry and wedding costs.

The second reason is that traditional wedding was much adherent to Emirati culture and
heritage. Everything was done locally. The wedding was held in a simple tent in front of the
bride's house and the food was prepared by the couple's families. Also, the bride's relatives
helped in beautifying her for the wedding. They decorated the hands and the feet of the bride
with henna. In contrast, today, the wedding is held in expensive hotels, the food is brought
from luxury restaurants and the bride goes to beauty salons.

The final reason is that in the past young Emirati men used to marry young Emirati women
because the wedding was very cheap. This helped in maintaining the Emirati heritage and
culture. However, today some young Emirati men marry foreign women instead of Emirati
women because of the high dowry and the expensive weddings. This may destroy Emirati
heritage because they have children who know little about Emirati culture.

To sum up, I strongly prefer traditional wedding to modern wedding because it was cheap
and adherent to Emirati culture. Therefore, I advise all Emirati families to reduce dowry and
wedding costs so that young Emirati people can get married.