Saudi Arabia: Issue of 'Married Spinsters' Leave Some Women in Limbo

From ArabNews.com - March 8, 2008

Issue of ‘Married Spinsters’ Leave Some Women in Limbo

JEDDAH, 8 March 2008 — Being in your early 30s may be considered a
young age in general terms, but in Saudi Arabia a woman who hasn’t
found a stable married life by then may never get it. Take Asma as an
example. At 31, Asma was facing family pressure to find a suitable
husband.

“My father wanted me to marry either a relative or a
member of our tribe,” she said. “No one from my family asked for my
hand in marriage. Year after year went by. It was then that my mother
tried to convince my father that I was approaching spinsterhood, and a
marriage had to be arranged fast. Initially he did not listen.”

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