Marriage to foreign women shows drop

According to a report in a local Arabic daily, which quoted the findings of a study conducted by the UAE University in conjunction with the UAE Marriage Fund, the rate of UAE nationals marrying foreign women has gone down to 15 per cent in October 2003 from 18.5 per cent in the same month last year.

Jamal Al Bah, Director-General of the Marriage Fund, said the rate of nationals marrying Arab women has gone down dramatically. Meanwhile, no UAE man has been reported to have married a woman from other AGCC countries, while there were four reported cases of UAE women marrying men from other AGCC countries.

Mr Al Bah said the study, which is in its final phases, pointed out that a total of 103 national men took the vow during October this year. This included 15 national men who married foreign women during the same month. A total of 23 divorce cases were also reported, he said.

He, however, called on the authorities concerned to put an end to what he called ‘the deterioration in family values' as a result of nationals marrying foreign women.

"UAE national men marrying foreign women would result in aggravating the social problems in the future - especially since young men are marrying women from countries with different customs and traditions as well as religions," he was quoted in the report as saying. In contrast men in the UAE showed little or not interest in marrying women from Arab countries, while number of spinsters in the UAE was on the rise.