Page 173 - UAE Truncal States
P. 173

Chapter Four


                 other gifts which the bride receives from her husband; thirdly, the
                 cost of the wedding festivities, which may include food for many
                 guests as well as money to be given to a group who are engaged to
                 sing and dance, and prizes for the winners in camel races.
                   The most important part of the marriage contract is, however, the
                 money, or animals or real estate, which the girl is given and which
                 she should keep separate from the rest of the household income to be
                 available for her use in case of divorce. It is important to stress here
                 that, however close the family lies between the bride and bride­
                 groom, a formal contract, which may not always be in writing, is
                 almost certainly worked out between the two parties. It is very much
                 part of the Islamic tradition that society as a whole ensures that the
                 rights which are accorded to women are strictly safeguarded, this is
                 facilitated by the fact that everyone in the community is told the
                 details of the contract.                                           i
                 Polygamy
                 Although many men in the Trucial States have more than one wife
                 during their lifetime, this is not necessarily due to widespread
                 polygamy nor to a high rate of divorce. The most frequent reason for a
                 divorce is if a husband wants more children and the wife is barren. It
                 is rare that the husband divorces his wife in anger, because apart
                 from the emotional aspect of losing the small children he has to
                 consider the cost if he wishes to marry anew. The bride price has
                 always been very high relative to the income which the various levels
                 of society could reckon with at any particular period in history. To   i
                 have more than one wife at a time was common only among the well-
                 to-do families of the coastal towns who were involved in the pearling
                 industry, and among the ruling families and leading shaikhs. Shaikh
                 Zayid bin Khallfah, who died in 1909, had six wives; one of the
                 leading pearling-boat owners in Abu Dhabi was said to have had
                 eighteen wives, but neither had more than three wives at a time and
                 death ended a marriage more frequently than divorce. A Ruler often
                 used marriage for political reasons: by taking the daughter of a
                 leading tribal shaikh he could hope to consolidate the allegiance of
                 that tribe.
                   There was an unusually high rate of death in childbirth before
                 modern medical facilities were introduced in the Trucial States; it
                 has been estimated that some 40 per cent of the women in the Trucial
                 States died during child-bearing age as a result of problems during
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