Dowry is paid in Gold - NTV Anchor on lessons learned from Iran marriages

Head of Swahili News at NTV Salim Swaleh has revealed why it is almost impossible to marry a woman in Iran where he worked for close to 6 years.

Speaking during an interview on Churchill Show during the weekend, Swaleh listed the conditions that have to be fulfilled in marrying a woman in Iran.

“When marrying a Persian woman, her weight is recorded and her dowry is set at gold that weighs a quarter of her weight,” he explained.

He added that the dowry is paid if you leave her, giving women a lot of power in such marriages.

Swaleh said that the penalty for not paying the dowry is imprisonment and those circumstances made it very hard for him to consider marrying in the middle east.

After working at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting for several years, the anchor returned to Kenya and married his current wife who he described as his childhood sweetheart.

“I would see her during my visits to my grandmother’s place in Gilgil and tell myself that one day she would be mine,” he said.

“She supported me in Iran when we were just starting life, God bless you Shariffa, were it not for you I don’t know where I’d be,” he added.

The news anchor also disclosed that Iranian men don’t like to see their women hanging out with Africans and one can be killed for it.

“Myself I am very dark compared to their complexion. They have some form of racism where they gossip about you without knowing you also speak Persian.

“You would enter a shop and hear them say to each other that midnight has arrived even if it is 11 am and you’re buying breakfast. It means a dark person has entered the room,” Swaleh gave his experience.

After working for Citizen TV for two years, he moved to NTV and explained that he made the decisions for personal reasons.

"I resigned for personal reasons not because of what I am reading online. My salary and the little I get from my businesses is enough money for me. I am a professional journalist who has worked with international media entities,” Swaleh was quoted saying at the time.