According to the local Omanis, the Arabs in the Gulf area have a distinct culture within the greater Arabic community. In general, people accept jobs near their families. The majority of those who accept jobs away from their families still stay within the Gulf region and visit family at least once per week. Omanis are very willing to pursue an education abroad; however, the norm upon graduation is to return to their original province upon graduation.

Despite some Western misimpressions, the low divorce rates in many Arabian countries is not due to their religion.

Islamic law makes it very easy to obtain a divorce. However, Arabs are a tribal people and marriages tend to be between families who know each other well. This provides ample motivation for people to make their marriages work. Many problems become public knowledge and in the event of a divorce, it is not uncommon for the family of the divorced woman to make things unpleasant for the former husband. This displeasure may even be expressed in physical action in some cases. In other cases, the husband who obtained a divorce suffers little to no social consequences for divorcing his wife. The divorce is weighed in the court of public opinion and social pressure is applied to the person judged to have been at fault. According to several Gulf Arabs with whom I spoke, the social pressures placed on a married couple are one reason that foreign brides are desired by some. From the husband's perspective, such marriages are free from many of the in-law pressures that are part of a traditional marriage.

Traditional Arabian marriages also come with a dowry being paid by the husband to the family of the bride, who in turn almost always gives that money to the bride. This money is an additional safety net for the woman. Once married, this dowry remains under the wife's control. Should she ever be divorced (or simply have another need for her own money), she has significant resources with which to operate. Those with whom I spoke said this was the biggest mistake that Western women make if they marry Arabs. Such woman rarely ask for a dowry. This has two problems. It places Western woman in a position of weakness once they are in an Arabian home (unless they have their own wealth from before the marriage). This also signals a lack of understanding of Arabian culture which is perceived as a sign of foolishness. On the other hand, the advantages of marrying Western women are manifold for Arabian men. They avoid constant exposures to in-laws and they rarely have to come up with a dowry. These perceived advantages of Western brides are so great, that the Sultan of Oman passed

The Omani people number approximately 2.6 million. This is a small percentage of the overall Arabian peoples. And of the 2.6 million, 600,000 are not Omanis, but expatriates (workers from other countries). As such, the Omani take steps to protect their culture from being assimilated from both the Western world and neighboring Arabian peoples. For instance, the Sultan of Oman ruled that Omanis could only marry Omanis unless they obtained a waiver from the government. While the states intent of this policy was to protect Omani culture, another result has been to keep divorce rates below 5%.

Polygamy has been part of Arabian culture, although not as much as usually portrayed by the media. It is expensive to have multiple wives (e.g., each new wife requires an additional dowry). In addition, there are some long-term costs associated with multiple wives. Unlike most Western parents, Arabian parents do not tell their kids they are on their own at 18 (or when they finish college). Instead, Arabian parents support their children, helping them find jobs, paying for at least a large percentage, if not all, of new cars, and even buying a house for their sons when they get married. Since multiple wives usually means many more children, the financial pressures on an Arabic man to provide for his family are high. This was less of a problem when Omanis lived in tents and had little physical wealth. It was relatively easy to provide sons with their own tents and some livestock of their own. Yet, imagine trying to buy modern houses for 8 to 12 sons (a typical range for Omani families today). There is immense social pressure for each son's house to be at least as good as those of his neighbor, yet the per capita income is approximately $8,000 per year. This financial pressure may help explain why many Omanis strongly support having women in the workforce. Typically, the financially besieged husband will be the strongest advocate for sending his wife to work.

As children see their parents struggling to financially meet the social obligations to provide for them, some Omanis expect the next generation to opt for a smaller families. If these Omanis are correct, polygamy will become rare and be limited to the very wealthy.

Given the currently large size of Omani families, many Western women may ask how Omani woman find the time to work and raise a large family. In American culture, this would be quite difficult. However, despite the financial pressures facing modern Omanis, they are quite wealthy for their part of the world and have an ample supply of inexpensive labor (usually from India and the Philippines). Thus, maids and nannies are common, especially in homes with multiple incomes. Since there is no income tax in Oman, 100% of the income earned by the wife is available for the family.

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