Tehran, YJC. Head of Iran Atonement Staff says incongruous dowries have become a big problem for young families.
It is a rite in Iran that when a couple are going to marry,
a sum of money, mostly in the form of a certain number of gold coins, is agreed
upon to be paid by the groom to the bride if their life together fails and separation
is deemed necessary. This sum is called "mahr” and it is the source of a lot of
trouble right now.
Increasingly, the brides’ families deem it better to bargain
for a larger mahr in order to make sure they have secured their daughter’s
future married life. The sum gets so high often that the groom just cannot pay
it if he were to save all he could earn in his entire life.
Things happen and couples more often than not find it better
to separate, although it used to be the furthest thing from minds when they
pledged faith to their partner.
Then pops up the issue of the mahr and a series of strenuous
conflicted events where the bride’s family pushes for the money and the groom’s
does its best to make them give the thing up.
Again not so infrequently, grooms end up behind the bars
because they cannot produce that amount of money.
"Preposterous mahrs have afflicted many families,” said
Assadollah Jolaei, Head of Iran’s Atonement Staff.
He added "A culture needs to be created here, which the
marja’s have also frequently emphasized.”
"In the case of driving we always tell people to pay more
attention to the rules so that thousands are not killed. As for the mahr also
we must be more careful, because there are really absurd mahrs these days which
are a plague to families.”