Debate Over Mixed Marriages In The United Arab Emirates

Why The Debate Over Mixed Marriages In The UAE?

As the government is still reviewing its proposed law to regulate the marriage of Emirati men to foreign women, others are engaged in a debate on the issue. The debate seems to have been sparked off by Dubai’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz Haddad, who gave his views at a discussion forum in Dubai.

The Proposed Law On Mixed Marriages In The UAE

Among the stipulations of the proposed law are that a man would have to get permission from the Ministry of the Interior to marry a foreign woman, the wife must be Muslim and Arab, the age difference between the man and woman should not exceed 25 years, and the couple must be free of sexually transmitted disease.

The Grand Mufti’s Views On Mixed Marriages In The UAE

Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz Haddad thinks that Emirati men should marry foreigners only as a last resort, for example, when he is so old that no Emirati woman wants to marry him, or when he wants to take a third or fourth wife for certain reasons but cannot find an Emirati woman.  Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz Haddad also wants a more precise definition of the kind of foreign women whom Emirati men may marry. He is amenable to them marrying Muslim, Christian, or Jewish women (“people of the book”), but not those of other religions.

Marriage Statistics In Dubai

A new survey by the Dubai Statistics Center indicates that in the first half of this year nearly a third of all marriages in Dubai were between Emirati men and foreign women, a 16.7% increase in such marriages since 2006. The nationalities of the women were not recorded but it is thought that a significant proportion of them were from Arab countries.

Why The Concern Over Marriage To Foreign Women

One possible reason is the high number of single Emirati women of marriageable age. There are said to be some 30,000 of them.

Possible Reasons For Marrying Foreign Women

According to police chief Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, who also spoke at the forum, possible reasons range from the large influx of foreign women into Dubai, the desire to avoid arranged marriages, and simply the extravagant costs of marrying an Emirati woman.

Reponses To Calls To Restrict Mixed Marriages

The Grand Mufti’s call to restrict mixed marriages had been accompanied by comments from others that such marriages were more likely to beak up and that the offspring of such marriages were more likely to commit crimes. Such views have been vociferously refuted in the press and online by people in and offspring of mixed marriages.

A comment from Eric Hensel, a senior community coordinator at a prominent semi-government organization who has worked in community development in the Gulf region for 6 years and now coordinates Emirate volunteer services is that, “I work with young Emiratis from traditional families and from mixed families. I’ve found the youth are all extremely eager to help, but that youth from mixed marriages often tend to go the extra mile. Perhaps this is their response to overcome social obstacles they’ve faced due to their mixed background, or as a way to prove their loyalty to the country?” He added that his view about the ills attributed to mixed marriages is that “the real problem is not mixing nationalities but poor fathering”.

Think About It

Are mixed marriages much more likely to fail than others? Is it wise or necessary to legally restrict mixed marriages? If so, what kinds of restrictions should be imposed? How would one ascertain what is a last-resort case of the type that the Grand Mufti says could be permitted a mixed marriage? Would age differences between man and wife be more important in a mixed marriage than in a same-nationality marriage? Are there other ways of tackling the concern about the large numbers of single women of marriageable age in the UAE, or the trend towards marrying foreign women?