Financial Stability Crucial to Marriage for Qataris

Doha, February 19 (QNA) - Young and unmarried Qatari men don t mind spending a large sum of money on their marriage provided they are tying the knot with a Qatari woman.
For most young citizens, making a solid financial base before marriage is important. "Marriage can wait. There is no hurry" they said. A survey conducted by the Supreme Council of Family Affairs reveals there is contradiction among young Qataris when it comes to choosing between love and arranged marriage.
According to the survey published Saturday by the English daily "The Peninsula", a majority of 71% of those surveyed said they would prefer to fall in love and then marry, they also said they wouldn t mind if their mothers and sisters selected brides for them.
Establishing emotional relations with their spouses before marriage helps in providing a wider scope for mutual understanding, said the respondents.
According to the study titled Trends among the youth toward marriage and divorce in the Qatari community , at least 40% of those surveyed said they don t prefer marrying within their own tribes.
They said they believed that marriages within a tribe leads more to divorce and results in bitterness between families. The concept of marriage has undergone a radical change in the Qatari society over the past decade due to rising levels of awareness and education, the Council said analyzing the results of the survey, a local Arabic daily reported yesterday.
The sample of the survey comprised 526 Qatari youths both men and women most of them students between 18 and 30 years. The survey found that the youth are facing difficulties in meeting wedding costs mainly when the spouse is a Qatari woman so they prefer to delay their marriage.