Marriage UAE style.

"my way or the highway"

That sums up the bulk of what Im seeing in UAE marriages. Ive talked about this countless times, especially when I first started up this blog, but now its getting more relevant.
Some people think I have what it takes to get married.

Or do I?

Marriage here in the UAE is a social affair on a few levels. If you were working, you almost always invite your colleagues, being an eastern culture, and all. But that's the thing.

Im not assimilated per se into UAE society. I like to think that I take the good, and leave out the bad mixing and matching to produce the bearded caveman that I am.

Unfortunately, as I still happily live in the UAE I have to look at the rulebook thrown at me. I have to have a house. Not an apartment, not a rental... A villa.

Then the marriage, that has to be scaled to your percieved status in society, and no family wants their daughter to look cheap. All this to save a local girl from being a spinster.

I might be painting the women with unfairly large brushstrokes, but they chose the paint. In all fairness, its really not up to the girls sometimes, but the widespread complacency with it is appaling.

I would rather build my home with my wife, than have it ready for us the second we are hitched. Id rather have my marraige a close family affair with a few extra tables than a wedding for 2500 strangers.

At the end of it all, I want to build a solid relationship built on us, and not on the empty promises of newly built house thats not a home, the stench of a new car, or the sparkle of a dress worn only once.