Husband to give Wife 124,000 Roses he Promised
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Under Iranian law a woman has the right to claim her mahr (dower) at any time during the marriage and this week an Iranian Court has ordered her husband to give her the 124,000 roses she was promised by him when they got engaged.
The unhappy wife has decided to ‘punish her very stingy husband’ leading up to their 10 year wedding anniversary.
When interviewed by the Iranian newspaper E’Ternad, Hengameh told them that she came to the conclusion he was very cheap not long after they were married after he would not even buy her a cup of coffee when they went to a café or restaurant!
Her husband Shahin has had his $68,000 (£33,000) apartment seized by the Court and it will remain confiscated until he gives his wife all of the 124,000 long stemmed roses she is claiming.
Shahin was quoted as saying he “can only pay for five roses a day and that it was his wife’s billionaire friends that put the idea into her head”.
The cost of a single rose in Tehran can cost up to $2.14 (£1.09) and he could end up with a massive bill of $265,360 before he gets his apartment returned to him and his wife is happy with finally receiving her dower.
Under Iranian law the dower is the property of the wife and the marriage contract is not valid until it had been paid. In some cases a man can be jailed for dower debts.
A Dower and a Dowry
A ‘dower’ is opposite to a ‘dowry’ (also known as trousseau) which is what a bride brings to the marriage as in money, goods or estate. It is sometimes confused with ‘bride price, money or goods’ which are paid to the prospective groom by the bride’s parents in exchange for her hand in marriage.
Dowries have been in existence as far back as the Homeric times when the Greek practice was to give a ‘bride-price’ and during the 5th Century BC ancient Romans practiced the reverse custom of dower.
In Victorian England the dowry was widely used and it was seen as an early payment of a womans inheritance. Daughters who had not received any dowry were then entitled to part of the estate on the death of her parents. If a couple were to die and had no children during the marriage, the dowry was then returned to the bride’s family.
Titbits on Dowries
William Shakespeare made use of the dowery in King Lear when on hearing that Cordelia was not to be given a dowry, one of her wooers ceased to woo her.
Claudio and Juliet’s premartial sex in Measure for Measure was brought about by their families arguing over her dowry.
Up until the 20th Century the common penalty for unmarried women being kidnapped and raped was that the abductor had to provide the women’s dowry.
Our custom of christmas stockings can be said to spring from dowries after St Nicholas threw gold into the stockings of three poor sisters providing them with their own dowry.
Indian Practice
In India the practice of giving women a dowry on breakage of marriage by husband still holds and is assisted by the judiciary and the police through threat of imprisonment.
Many times the transaction never ends; the women can come back to the courts for more dowry if she feels like it
In India, the practice is still very common, in arranged marriages and in rural areas as it is widely recognized as a Traditional Ritual of Marriage. Demanding dowry is prohibited by law as of 1961.
African Dowry
Among most African communities, a dowry payment is an age-old custom. The future bride and groom’s parents will arrive at an agreement the man must pay before he marries the woman.
It was customarily used to seal the relationship between the two families to create a feeling of trust and understanding between them. It is also seen as a man’s commitment and ability to take care of his wife while providing for his family.
The bride’s price does not need to be paid before the marriage or all at once. Over the life of the marriage the husband will continue to provide his in-laws with cows and goats as and when he can afford to.
Modern traditions here in the UK are ‘building a bottom drawer’, shopping together for the latest hi-fi equipment and plasma tv’s and having the choice of separate bank accounts!
