500 marry in mass wedding
UAE BUSINESSMAN DONATES OVER DH11M FOR CELEBRATIONS AT EXPO CENTRE IN SHARJAH
Amass wedding for 250 Arab expat couples was held in Sharjah on Saturday, following a Dh11 million donation by a UAE businessman.
Each couple received Dh30,000 and gift vouchers in the ‘Zayed Arab Mass Wedding’, held at Expo Centre by the Arab Family Organisation (AFO).
According to organisers, this was the first time a mass wedding for Arab expats has been held on this scale in the UAE.
Saturday’s wedding title reflects the ‘Year of Zayed’ (2018), celebrated by the UAE as a tribute to its founding father, the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
AFO chairman Jamal Bin Obaid Al Bah said Emirati businessman Abdul Rahim Mohammad Al Zarouni sponsored the event, donating more than Dh11 million for the mass wedding.
The 500 brides and bridegrooms — all long-time UAE residents, many of them born in the UAE — were of around 20 nationalities. They included grooms from Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, Palestine and other countries who live in the UAE.
Most of the couples were between 28 and 33 years old.
Al Bah said this is the first time the AFO organised the Arab mass wedding and it hopes to organise another one next year.
“This is a way to show them that the UAE is their home, many of them have been part of the UAE’s growth. Their parents have been doctors and teachers in the country. This is a ‘thank you’, a way of giving back to them,” Al Bah said. The grooms wore traditional Emirati attire for the wedding.
‘Efficient’ ceremony
AFO, established over 47 years ago, works with governments, companies and NGOs in the Arab world for the welfare of Arab families through various programmes.
“Usually for many Arab families, weddings are costly. This mass wedding is ‘efficient’ in terms of wedding costs. It’s a new culture in the UAE that first started with Emirati mass weddings. Usually there’s support from a single person or entity who gives the money for establishing the mass wedding,” Al Bah said.
“This initiative is welcomed as it helps people get married,” said newlywed Sudanese expat Mohammad Rifaat, 28, who works for Sharjah Municipality.