SHARJAH // Couples are being urged to opt for cheaper weddings to avoid starting married life heavily in debt.
With extravagant ceremonies costing up to Dh1 million, social authorities are eager to ease the financial burden on newlyweds.
“Expensive and debt-funded marriages survive on stress and end in divorce,” said Fauzia Al Taresh, director of family affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs. “It’s in everyone’s interest to see that married couples live in peace and happiness.
The Sharjah Marriage Fund held its third family forum yesterday to advise brides-to-be who have seen relatives and friends splash out hundreds of thousands of dirhams on their big day not to follow suit.
“The marriage fund is doing its best to implement programmes that promote and achieve its vision of having stable Emirati families,” said Habiba Al Hosni, the fund’s acting director general.
“One of these programmes is creating awareness against extravagance and excessive spending on weddings for aspiring couples.”
The fund has organised 10 mass weddings so far this year, and 60 more bridegrooms are due to be married at the end of the month in a ceremony organised in conjunction with the Emirates Identity Authority.
The fund is also planning a mass wedding for brides this year, as only bridegrooms and a male audience attend most Emirati mass weddings.
At a mass wedding at Zabeel Park in March, 51 grooms took their first steps in married life.
Authorities hope promoting mass weddings and cheaper private options will encourage couples, who would otherwise be put off by the cost, to tie the knot.
Lowering the cost of weddings is one of the key objectives of the marriage fund, which offers loans of Dh70,000 to Emiratis with a monthly income of Dh20,000.
However, some Emiratis said the loan did not go far enough to cover the expenses involved.
“It cannot even buy the bride’s wedding dress,” said Omar, 30, a photographer who is unmarried. “My brother got it and simply used it to pay for the dowry. His wedding was cheap but it did cost around Dh150,000 without the dowries.”
Sharjah Women’s Union Association holds wedding exhibitions and festivals to help couples to find venues where they can hold affordable weddings, and where to buy accessories on a budget. The association organises the annual Sharjah Perfect Wedding Show at the Sharjah Expo Centre.
ykakande@thenational.ae
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
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Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X
Price, as tested: Dh84,000
Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: Six-speed auto
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Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa