Manama: A Saudi man has asked a man who proposed to his sister to offer her an iPhone 6 as a dowry.
The prospective groom should present the latest phone sensation as soon as it is available on the Saudi market in order for the marriage to go ahead.
The brother’s condition supplants the father’s request for a simple amount of money as the dowry for the marriage, Kuwaiti daily Al Anba reported.
Dowries are a deep-rooted tradition in the Arab world and Asia, and despite calls from religious scholars to ensure they should be simple gifts, several families insist on taking exorbitant sums of money to allow the marriage.
The young generation in the Gulf has been pushing for lower dowries, but their calls are often resisted by traditions and status-conscious families and tribes.
“We have heard about quite a few of things, but an iPhone 6 that has not even hit the markets here is a bit bizarre,” Saud Ahmad, a Bahraini office clerk, said. “We need to promote a culture where marriage should not be used by anyone to get gifts or make profits in any way. If I had been the groom, I would have confronted the brother,” he said.
