A Joint Initiative of: Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings | Dubai School of Government

In an April 2008 Reuters article appearing in the Kuwait Times, Dubai police chief General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim warns, “I’m afraid we are building towers but losing the Emirates.” The subject of his fear is the demographic imbalance that “plagues” the United Arab Emirates, reducing the native community to a mere 15.4 percent of the country’s population of 5.4 million.

 

Accelerating this demographic shift is the fact that Emirati men are increasingly opting to marry foreign women, a phenomenon which prompted the government sponsored Marriage Fund to encourage nationals to marry each other.

 

Radical influxes of wealth in the UAE resulting from the country’s oil production have placed financial pressure on Emirati men to finance expensive wedding celebrations and high dowries and to maintain decadent lifestyles. While concerns about the affordability of marriage have consumed the national population, the high volume of foreign workers and expatriates living in the UAE (for example, about 75 percent of the UAE’s workforce hails from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) has offered an alternative route to marriage and family formation.

 

The UAE Marriage Fund, in operation since 1992, keeps with recent efforts to “Emiratize” society, preserve the national population, and promote local heritage. The Fund was one of the initiatives of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, leader and founder of the UAE, and provides marriage grants and sponsors group weddings for UAE nationals in the hopes of balancing the demographics and restoring an indigenous majority. According to locals, the Marriage Fund fits within the late leader’s larger vision for his country, which relied on the potential for developing human capital as a part of national wealth. Thus, it comes as no surprise that, 21 years after he championed the formation of the UAE from the Trucial States, Sheikh Zayed promoted the Fund as a response to the changes affecting his community.

 

The changes were indeed great. In only a few decades, the Emirates were transformed from an isolated region into a global hub attracting over 150 nationalities. As regards marriage, celebrations have reached exorbitant costs, in the hundreds of thousands of dirhams, and venues are extending to less affordable hotels rather than simple neighborhood festivities. In research by Diane Singerman, the costs of an average Saudi wedding in 2003 are estimated to be 165,000 riyals (US$43,000 at 2008 exchange rates), 26% of which account for “status-conscious receptions,” including the honeymoon. In the same fashion, UAE weddings cost an average of 300,000 dirhams (US$81,744). Of that, the dowry amount could easily exceed 100,000 dirhams (about US$27,240).

 

Under the direction of a government-selected committee and backed by national endowments, the Marriage Fund administers marriage grants of 70,000 dirhams per couple (about US$19,000) averaging 3,000 grants a year. The amount is distributed in two installments – the first 30,000 dirhams are provided at the announcement of marriage and the remainder is given once preparations for the marriage begin. Though by current standards of living, 70,000 dirhams may not be significant, it does assist individuals from the far poorer Northern Emirates (Um al-Quwayn, Ras al-Khaymah, Fujaira, Ajman).

 

The Fund also offers lectures on married life and sexual relations for couples prior to marriage and hosts group weddings, sponsored by either the Fund or by an individual ruler, such as those sponsored by Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in the winter of 2007-8. The most recent such celebration was held in July of 2008 and was hosted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and provided the opportunity for almost 300 national men to marry. The Marriage Fund caps the dowry at 50,000 dirhams and strongly advises against celebrating lavishly at hotels.

 

So – a problem solved? Not quite. In fact, despite what seems to be broad support within UAE society, the Marriage Fund often raises far more questions than it answers. For example, during the Marriage Fund’s tenure the divorce rates among locals have ironically been soaring, most commonly due to family pressures, according to the chair of the Personal Status division at the Abu Dhabi courts. Though there may be a number of reasons that divorce rates are increasing, including changing gender roles and financial disputes, the Marriage Fund may play a role.

 

It is also important to note that treating marriage as a national accomplishment rather than as a personal milestone has its consequences. The grant amount may not be high enough to entice all nuptials and, further, the approach of directing domestic lives by dictating how and where to celebrate and whom to marry may turn some people off.