CAIRO, February 6 (RIA Novosti) - A 35-year-old Egyptian bachelor has devised an insurance system to protect young Egyptian couples from singlehood, the Al-Ahram daily said on Wednesday.
In Egypt, a predominantly Muslim country, the number of unmarried people has recently skyrocketed to an estimated nine million.
Akhmed Abdel Khadi says that this worrying trend could be explained by the country's marriage customs, which are expensive with would-be grooms forced to pay up to $30,000 for a wife, while the average income in Egypt is around $44 per month.
Singlehood, says Khadi, could be overcome by insurance companies providing their clients with a "singlehood insurance" service, a special payment to couples so that they can marry.
The government, Khadi says, should also force fathers to invest so that their newly-born sons could afford to pay for the marriage ceremony and bridal gifts, when they grow up.
