Tuesday 9 August 2011

How much are you worth...ladies??



How much is a woman worth these days?. Hmmmm…I'm talking about how much should a man pay for wang hantaran (WH) or dowry to marry a Malaysian Malay Muslim woman these days...

What is the standard price should a woman put as her WH? Customary, the financial value is usually  assess by the matriarch and will auto-agreed by everyone in the family….and decision would be based on the value of WH of elder siblings in the family. If she happened to be the first to wed in would be based on current values.. 

Back in the 90's if the girl is an SPM leaver the girl’s parents usually would put RM5K as WH but nowadays they could worth more than RM10K provided she looks like Erra Fazira or Maya Karin.

If she is a university graduate then it would be between RM8K-RM10K now and could possibly reach up to RM20K  and could shoot higher with Erra Fazira looks....

How about if she has a Masters degrees……she could worth more!!! ( lagilah mahal mak oi!)

Some girls chose their birth date as the value of their WH. So if you’re born on 25.03.1984, then your WH could be RM250,319.84???????????!! Ya Allah! Can buy a nice 2-storey apartment with that kinda money! And would anyone in the right frame of mind pays for such amount unless you’re the Sultan or the brother of the Sultan of Brunei then probably you would.

But seriously, would a girl feel less worthy if the value of her WH is lower than what is priced in the market? 

Would a guy feel less manly if he couldn’t afford the WH fixed by the girl’s parents and had to resort to borrowing from a bank or relatives? Would the girl help the guy pay some of the WH to ease the burden a lil bit?


During my cousin brother's engagement ceremony, when my mom asked the girl's parents how much is the WH, the father simply said, "Letaklah berapa yang rasa patut"(You decide how much you could afford). That should be easy enough right?    Wrong!! 


See, if you put low then they might get the impression that you dont think so highly of their daughter, which is not good to start off a marriage. But if you letak harga tinggi (too high!!), then my cousin brother will have to wait for a few more years.(belom cukup duitla kan.) I mean he's only been working for what, 2 years now?

I guess the key word here is compromise. 

Bak kata orang tua-tua, “Kalau letak mahal sangat pun nanti tak ada orang nak, jadi anak dara tua ler jawabnyer!”

1 comment:

  1. ...been searching everywhere for the answer... still dont have the clue ...hmmm

    ReplyDelete