Hessa Essa Buhumaid, UAE Minister of Community Development, recently participated in a virtual youth seminar titled "Marriage beyond COVID-19" along with the Minister of State for Youth Affairs. Shamma bint Suhail Al Mazrui, and Youth Council members in the ministry, among other 200 attendees and followers from all over the UAE. During the seminar, Hessa Essa Buhumaid laid emphasis on recent shift to virtual weddings in the country in the wake of social distancing regulations, asserting that the changing trends have paved the way for positive outlook among the younger generation about marriage.

Buhumaid highlighted that positive changes in terms of societal behaviour and personal views related to wedding ceremonies are being noticed among the young in a bid to secure the health and wellbeing of Emirati families in future. Youth, parents and other social entities are working in solidarity towards national and social responsibility that will benefit the younger generation and sustainability among the community as a whole.

"This youth seminar seeks to better reflect the best for the community, family and the UAE youth. We look for a more positive reality towards the concept of marriage among young people by discussing the challenges faced by them when thinking about marriage and highlighting the positive intellectual changes towards its costs," Buhumaid said in her opening remarks.

Further, she provided details about the survey conducted by the UAE government focusing on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the expectations of a radical change in social life towards the development of sustainable and flexible societies. In response, society makes efforts towards national responsibility in a bid to make use of the current reality for a better future.

Buhumaid asserted that organising a low-cost wedding is not a defect or a default, adding that the UAE society grew up on the perspectives of cost-saving at weddings to encourage the younger generations to tackle the challenges in the future.

She further shed light on the support provided by the UAE leadership to young spouses through marriage grants in a bid to provide to them security and assurance towards building a stable and cohesive family. In view of the efforts made by the UAE leadership, the ministry aims to positively educate the young generations towards the importance of non-exaggerated costs of wedding ceremonies such the community is provided with an opportunity to get married at the lowest possible costs.

Adding to her remarks, Minister Shamma Al Mazrui noted that the concept of marriage has gone through several changes in the wake of pandemic crisis and its repercussions across the world.

"These effects provided young people with the opportunities to rethink of the mechanism of marriage procedures in the UAE society, whereas, COVID-19 imposed the cancellation of many activities due to the social distancing procedures including marriage ceremonies and forced us to reconsider the costs of weddings and organise simpler ceremonies," the Minister added.

Youth Council member Fatema Al Menhali moderated the seminar while allowing young people to share their views and ideas on the changing concept of marriage and the impact of COVID-19 on community behaviour.

During the seminar, the participants also shared their views on varied topics including the concept of marriage among young people, challenges they face while thinking about marriage, positive intellectual changes in wedding costs during the pandemic, and the developing negative behaviour of the community towards exaggerated wedding costs. They also discussed the importance of enhancing the concept of marriage and its basic requirements among young people and intensifying awareness among the media towards the shifts in the wedding costs.

WAM