There are 9 million spinsters in Egypt, 55 per cent of whom have Master's degrees and/or Doctorates. Sometimes an educated woman is so desperate to get married and not be left on the shelf that she goes for a man who has little or no education. Bothaina el-Dib, an ex-chairwoman of the Studies and Research Centres for Population, affiliated to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), says that 532 young women with master's degrees and doctorates have recently married uneducated men.Samia Khedr, a professor of sociology at Ain Shams University, stresses that money is another important issue. "Often it's the case that an educated woman will marry an uneducated man if he has the necessary cash," she explains. “There are many young men, educated or not, who cannot afford to tie the knot," she adds.A study conducted by the Ministry of Social Affairs in Saudi Arabia shows that 70 per cent of Saudi men refuse to marry women working in professions like journalism, medicine and nursing, because this requires them to work long hours alongside other men. In Egypt, men prefer to marry working women because their income can help them (men) make ends meet. In general, an Eastern man likes to be superior to his wife in everything: if a woman has a Master's or Doctorate, he may not marry her. A number of mosques in Cairo have set up marriage bureaux for young unmarried people. One mosque in Giza is open six hours a day: three hours for men and three for women.Um Mohamed, who works at the mosque says that the bureau tries to match young men and women, so they can get married according to Islamic principles. About 750 couples marry every year, having used the bureau's services, she adds.Professor Samiha Nasr, who works at the Sociological and Criminological Research Centre, has her reservations about marriage bureaux, whether at mosques or private ones. She argues that matchmaking should be the job of a female matchmaker. "These bureaux may not always be successful, while the matchmaker, a common figure in the past, was normally successful because she knew the families of both the girl and her suitor," she explains. However, Professor Khedr believes that mosques may play an effective role, as along as the bureaux employ social workers with experience of matchmaking.
Funny, this seems to be a “problem” all over the world. A few years ago this was a sort of a media hype in Europe and the US. Well educated, professional, attractive women who have it all, but don’t seem to be able to find the right spouse.
Posted by desertgirl (Member # 12450) on :
Yes, even celebrities are having their own TV-show looking for a guy. Funny but weird at the same time.