IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – After three years of work, the 31-year old Hassan Masri, an IDP from Homs who lives in Idlib, was unable to collect the dowry for his marriage, especially after setting it in US dollars.
The bride’s family does not ask for a house as a dowry for their daughter anymore. The house was replaced with a big sum of dollars, amid the lack of job opportunities, which constitutes another obstacle for young people wishing to marry, according to Masri.
“I have been working in a sewing workshop in the city of Idlib since my displacement from the northern countryside of Homs three years ago, and until now I have not been able to get married, due to the extremely high cost of marriage and dowry,” he said.
The salary he receives is hardly enough to secure the family’s expenses, including food and medicine for his sick father.
The dowry is considered one of the most prominent obstacles to Masri, especially since the minimum dowry for any girl will not be less than a thousand dollars.
Calls for the reduction of dowries and the facilitation of marriage spread on social media.
Customs and traditions
Customs and traditions differ from one place to another and from one society to another. One of the customs that the residents of Idlib adhere to, is the high dowries, which many consider a social problem that burdens the youth, including Nabil al-Dabis.
Al-Dabis, a resident of the city of Ma’arat Misrin, north of Idlib, was unable to get married because of the high costs of marriage as an inherited tradition.
The father of the young man was forced to sell his car so that his eldest son can get married with a dowry of $3,000 (about 10 million Syrian pounds).
“Now we do not have anything to sell for my marriage, which makes marriage a dream for me,” he said.
Travel to secure the dowry
Hundreds of young men in Idlib region, especially the IDPs, are forced to illegally travel to the Turkish lands to work there and secure the marriage dowry.
About a year and a half ago, after all attempts to find a job in Idlib failed, Suhail Najm, an IDP from the northern countryside of Hama, was forced to go to Turkey and work there in order to secure his marriage dowry.
He started working in a nylon factory, with a salary that sometimes reached 2,500 Turkish liras per month.
“I found my soul mate, who is a resident of the city of Binnish, east of Idlib, and I sent my father and mother to her family’s for proposal, but I was surprised by the number and conditions set by the girl’s father.”
“They asked for $ 4,000, in addition to 30 grams of gold as a dowry, I was shocked,” Najm added.
“I cannot secure these requests even by ten years of working in Turkey. As a result, I completely canceled the idea of marriage.”
There is no young man who does not want to get married and have a family, but this desire has become difficult to achieve in northern Syria, due to the absence of job opportunities and unemployment.
Additional burden
Jamil Hallaq, a socialist, said that the reason behind the youths’ reluctance to marry is the costs and conditions that the parents of the bride impose on them which increase their burdens.
The high dowry affects the low income families which bear multi burdens, Hallaq added.
“The solution is by raising awareness regarding the decrease of dowries and helping the youths to marry,” he referred.
In light of the absence of laws, “parents are asked to determine a suitable dowry for marriage, as nothing but awareness can limit the outbreak of the phenomenon of the youths’ reluctance to marry,” according to Hallaq.