From the BBC we learn that an Iranian man, named only as Shahin, has been sentenced by a local court to pay his wife, Hengameh, the dowry he promised her before they married.
It seems he never actually gave it to her, and she described his conduct towards her during their ten years of wedded life as being “stingy”. Under Iranian law a wife can claim a promised dowry at any time, so she decided to do so in order to punish him.
The promised dowry? A quantity of red roses.
One hundred and twenty-four thousand of them, to be precise.
According to the BBC a single long-stemmed red rose costs about $2 US in Iran: so Shahin must now come up with a quarter of a million dollars to buy his wife the dowry he promised her a decade ago. To encourage him, the court seized his apartment in Tehran as security until he makes good on his promise.
Sounds like a good time to be a flower-shop owner in Tehran!
Peter