Mahr

In Islam, a mahr (in Arabic: مهر; Persian: مهريه; Bengali: দেনমোহর; Turkish: mihr; Swahili: mahari; Indonesian: mahar; also transliterated mehr, meher, denmohor, mehrieh, or mahriyeh) is the bride wealth obligation, in the form of money, possessions or teaching of verses from the Quran by the groom, to the bride in connection with an Islamic wedding. While the mahr is often money, it can also be anything agreed upon by the bride such as jewellery, home goods, furniture, a dwelling or some land. Mahr is typically specified in the marriage contract signed upon marriage. "Dower" is the English translation that comes closest to Islamic meaning of mahr, as "dower" refers to the payment from the husband or his family to the wife, especially to support her in the event of his death, although subsequent to marriage the wife also acquires inheritance rights. However, mahr is distinct from dower in two ways: 1) mahr is legally required for all Islamic marriages while dower is optional, and 2) mahr is required to be specified at the time of marriage (when a certain amount is promised, if not paid immediately), while dower is not paid until the death of the husband. Mahr also can be classified as a form of "bridewealth", described by anthropologists as payments made from the kin of the groom to the kin of the bride; however, mahr is paid directly to the bride and not her parents. In fact, as her legal property, mahr establishes the bride's financial independence from her parents and in many cases from her husband, who has no legal claims to his wife's mahr. The terms "dowry" and "bride price" are sometimes incorrectly used to translate mahr, but mahr differs from dowries in many other cultures. A dowry traditionally refers to money or possessions a woman...