Collective wedding parties in Bahrain

The Bahrain daily Bahrain Tribune said on Saturday that the ruler of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad Bin Issa al-Khaleifa, has offered a donation to arrange collective marriage parties including 2,000 young couples from among Bahrain's citizens on the occasion of the fall of the year 2000.

AFP quoted the paper as saying that a committee was formed including several representatives of charity funds and societies to prepare for and supervise the organization of the wedding parties.

The paper said that the initiative of the ruler of Bahrain came to alleviate the financial risks of Bahrain's young people who are at the age of marriage to get married as well as to share their joys with them.

The wedding party expenditures and the dowry are a common problem among all the Gulf states because families of the girls often ask for large sums as a dowry to consent to the marriages of their daughters.