Caucasus experts treat Chechen practice of help to pay ransoms for brides as unique

Muslim countries have no widespread practice of helping needy bridegrooms with the purchase of ransom for a bride used in Chechnya, note Caucasus experts.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Chechen authorities have promised to allocate more than 10 million roubles in total to bridegrooms who are short of money to pay a traditional ransom for a bride.

Lawyer and Islamic expert Leonid Syukiyainen, Professor at the Higher School of Economics, found it difficult to mention any examples of such help to bridegrooms with purchasing a ransom for a bride.

According to the expert, in many Muslim countries, bridegrooms face a situation where the amount of ransom (mahr) for a bride is very high.

"A bridegroom often had to work for years to accumulate such an amount. Then the authorities made decisions at the state level to somehow limit the amount of mahr. In Russia, we had decisions of the Spiritual Administrations of Muslims [...] with recommendations of a certain upper ransom limit so that there would be no obstacles for many to enter into marriage," the expert noted.

Mikhail Roschin, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), notes that in theory, a number of countries, primarily rich oil-producing countries may apply the practice of helping to pay for mahr. "The question is how many bridegrooms are there in need among the local population, since they already receive payments from the state," Mikhail Roschin told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 12, 2020 at 04:36 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.