Al-Shura Council discusses facilitating marriage [Archives:2004/775/Community]

By Fahmia Al-Fotih
For the Yemen Times
One of the biggest problems that Yemeni young people face nowadays is that they cannot afford the marriage costs that constitute a dowry, an extravagant wedding ceremony, superfluous qat, and the rental of huge halls, just to show off, which incidentally, is against the teachings of Islam.
This topic was on the top of the Al-Shura Coucil's agenda in its first meeting of the second session of 2004 headed by Mr. Abdualaziz Abdualghani, the Al-Shura Council chairperson.
Mr. Abdualghani, delivered a speech in which he welcomed all the council members saying “The objective of this meeting is to tackle an important issue: how to facilitate the marriage, and how to limit and lessen unnecessary expenditures that accompany the wedding parties. These phenomena have emerged recently and seem to have become a part of the wedding process, yet, they are not”.
He claimed that these phenomena were not norms of Yemeni society and that they had become a substantial burden on the citizen and society alike. Besides, they pervert the spirit of cooperation between the society members as well as irritating the other people feelings by pushing them to imitate and show off. Indeed it is against our traditions and Islamic rules, that are simple and humble.
He further went on to state that “The president's speech in Ibb a month ago advised the ridding of these bad habits that accompany weddings”.
A proposal about facilitating the marriage was submitted by Mr. Abusalslam Karamn, Mohammed Aglan and Mr. Yayah Kahtan, Al-Shura Council members. The paper contains some practical suggestions and solutions for extravagance during wedding parties, such as holding awareness workshops and seminars, increasing the role of media and activating the role of the religious scholars and councilors, and founding charitable funds to help youths get married more easily.
Mr. Abdualaziz thanked all members along with the guests from the government and the representatives of civic society who attended the discussion and enriched the submitted papers.
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