Why UAE Will Pay You To Get Married

There are a few moments in life celebrated across cultures, with new births and marriages topping the list. And in the latter case, those celebrations often involve lavish ceremonies — lots of friends and relatives, lots of food and drink, music, flowers, and whatever else the bride and groom can dream of. But affordability often becomes an issue. Some couples make strategic decisions to keep costs down, be it eloping or simply having a small, intimate reception. And in the United Arab Emirates, for a while, would-be grooms took an even more extreme approach:

They decided not to marry other Emirati women.

The cost of weddings in the UAE was spiraling out of control in the early 1990s. After the federation of states became a major source of global oil in the 1970s, the standard of living — and expectations of those living there — shot up. Young men wanting to marry a local woman were stuck between the opulence of modern life and the traditions of generations past; their brides (and friends, families, etc.) expected to be invited to a huge wedding ceremony, and the families of their brides-to-be wanted significant dowries paid to them. As the BBC reported in 1999, “Usually Emirati weddings are private but opulent affairs, with as many as 1,000 guests, expensive light shows and fabulous, fairytale outfits for the bride. The bill for all this, which falls to the bridegroom to pay, can come to tens of thousands of pounds — often forcing the young couple to begin their married life in debt.” And with dowries regularly north of $20,000 (£15,000), the problem became even worse. Some papers suggested that weddings cost grooms as much as $185,000, and the above-linked BBC report noted that “as many as 80 per cent of all personal loans being taken out by Emirati men were being used to cover wedding expenses.”

There was a way around theses costs, though. Many Emirati men believed they could marry foreign women and save a lot of money in the process. In many cases, the dowry was significantly less, if not zero. And in any event, these brides weren’t expecting the parties that local women were. Thousands of grooms married women from over 150 different countries in the early 1990s, and officials in the UAE were concerned. So in response, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan — often called the founding father of the UAE — established a Marriage Fund. The Fund gave grants of about $20,000 to any Emirati man to cover costs associated with one’s nuptials. But there was a catch — the man had to choose a bride who was also an Emirati.

That stipend is a large amount of cash but, of course, not enough to hit the price tags cited above. So UAE leadership took further actions. There’s now a law on the books capping dowries to the equivalent of $14,000 and setting other caps, such as a limit on the number of camels that can be slaughtered for the celebratory meal to nine. (Camel meat is commonly served at these weddings, and some extravagant ones have required as many as 90 camels.) For couples who need to take out loans to fund the celebration, some local governments also offers low-interest loans, but, as the Financial Times reports, many of those come with strings attached. For example, per the FT, “Abu Dhabi’s [interest-free loan] plan gives a 250-guest and three-hour limit, discourages live entertainment, wasteful buffets and wedding cakes (finger food is fine), and suggests brides choose “a modest and moderate dress that lets [her] shine rather than distracting.”

The programs have proven rather popular — a 2010 report in Emirates247 notes that more than 50,000 couples received a grant from the fund in its first 17 years. And there have been some reports of the legal efforts to curb excessive celebrations have also been successful. The original Marriage Fund was folded into the federal government in 2016, but the program survives today. Eligible Emirati couples can still receive a government marriage grant, and eligibility continues to be tied to marriages between Emirati citizens.

Bonus fact: One thing you won’t find at Emirati weddings? Poppy seed bagels. As the nation’s website notes, “the UAE has a zero-tolerance policy for recreational use of drugs,” and they really mean zero-tolerance. Per a 2008 BBC report, “British tourist Keith Brown was sentenced to four years in prison after Dubai customs officers found a 0.003g trace of cannabis stuck to his shoe” and “in one of the most extreme cases, it reported a man being held after poppy seeds from a bread roll were found on his clothes.”

From the Archives: The Geopolitical Babushka Doll: The part of UAE that is surrounded by Oman that is surrounded by UAE.