Abstract

It is one of the most ancient traditions of the human family relations that at the time of marriage the man pays a dower (mehr) to the woman or to her father. In addition to that, he undertakes to bear the expenses of his wife and children during the entire period of his life. This practice in different forms is known to the people of the scriptures and also to many communities of the world. Dower used to be paid to the wife or widow in most of the European countries and even today some of the countries have retained this provision. In Islam payment of dower is obligatory on the husband to the wife. Dower, in Islam is a present given by husband to the wife as a sign of friendship, cordiality and goodwill. Dower in Islam is a free gift to the wife on which she can exercise her absolute right. This article does not address the Quranic provisions of dower in detail, kinds of dower as exist in traditional law and can be found in many text books, amount of dower coupled with the debate on dower and dowry as prevalent in Bangladeshi society. Those areas can be discussed independently on their own merit and an article in this issue appears on a different area of dower. Dower was prevalent among the Arabs in different forms which is also available in some text books and as such it has not been discussed in this article except for reference. This article aims to look at dower as it exists in history of the European and north American countries, history of dower as appears from the Quran, philosophy of dower and its significance in the Islamic system of marriage. The methodology adopted for this study is both descriptive and analytical.