We usually tend to blame the government for our financial status. This is fair to an extend because the government is responsible of setting the necessary regulations and control the flow of the economy in a way that guarantees the best level of living for the citizens. That being said, one would also try to think of other factors that affect the current financial situation of many Jordanian families. A glimpse on the local cultural and social behavior would give us a better idea.
Being an integral part of society is costly in Jordan. Following a set of rigid social traditional rules is necessary. Marriage takes the top spot in term of expenditure and acceptance, and while men are responsible of financing the big chunk of this process, women have also to invest in themselves in order to raise their rank in the market for a better ‘husband’ opportunity. That is clear in the way young Jordanian women reside to buying a costly new car that takes the major amount of their salary for a couple of years once they start working. In the other hand, young Jordanian men usually settle with a mid-aged car – they usually use their parents’s car – in order to save whatever amount of money for their wedding day.
In Jordan, a couple must be legally bonded. It must live in a 3 bedroom house with good quality furniture. It must own a car or two. And it must have at least one or two children few years in their marriage.
An alternative model would be having young girls and boys start working early – as early as 18 -. Lower social expectations of expenditures on weddings parties and focus on giving stronger values for young entrepreneurs rather than those who are married.
Instead of whining about the cost of living and how bad our government performance is, it may be a good idea to monitor our expenditure and guide our money to whatever raises our quality of life rather than gaining a hard achievable social acceptance.
Fadi Zaghmout فادي زغموت 
I think the whole wedding expenditure deal in Jordan is a HUGE waste of resources.When a couple build their life together financially, it forms a special bond of mutuality.Both my husband and I started earning part-time income when we were young. At 12 I was selling handicrafts, and at 10 he had a newspaper route. Learning that early about fiscal responsibility, is a gift education and social status can’t buy.
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The way I understand it is that the male has to pay a ‘Maher etc..’ to insure that he will take care of the wife and not miss treat her and get get divorced.The reason why this price is very high is that men in Jordan do not accept marrying a divorced woman.The problem is that if a woman is divorced in the Arabic society she gets a very negative reputation among the rest of the individuals.This fact encourages the male to threaten his wife with divorce if she doesn’t obey him.The solution to this problem is to make people realize that it is ok to fail in a relationship, and even if it wasn’t, the problem shouldn’t always be thrown on the woman.By getting rid of this reputation that a divorced woman is labeled by in her society, the threat that is caused by being divorced diminishes and as a result of that the price that the male has to pay to arrange a marriage decreases too which makes it financially easier for couples to get married.Not only that, we have also fixed the problem that women are threatened by their husbands to be divorced and made the husband and wife more equal in the society.
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kinzi, “the whole wedding expenditure deal in Jordan is a HUGE waste of resources.” that is so sadly true!You and your husband have done great work! Bravo 🙂Nizar, things are so connectedly messed up with limited room for improvement if someone wants to stick to what we call traditions!
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nizar, i never thought of it that way!and ‘obersver’ i agree, starting work at a young age doing menial jobs really teaches people the value of money and their expectations are lowered.
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I agree, instead of working for social acceptance, use money wisely. Invest in things that would grow.Follow the examples of some of the most successful young entrepreneurs of The YES movie at < HREF="http://www.TheYESmovie.com" REL="nofollow">http://www.TheYESmovie.com<> brought to you by Louis Lautman
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