how do dowry and parental consent work in modern Saudi Arabia?

Factual Questions
1

wikipedia article on Mahr - Wikipedia suggests that Islamic marriage is a contract between man and woman where the wife gets a dowry from the husband as a security against arbitrary divorce. No parental consent or payment to the wife’s father is mentioned. On the other hand, I recall reading a story along the lines of some father who got tired of waiting for an affluent suitor for his daughter and gave her in marriage to an employed guy who was too poor to make some sort of traditional payment (cannot remember further details).

So the above raises the question in my mind, why is the father an issue in the first place? Shouldn’t the adult woman be able to make her own marriage decisions and negotiate her own dowry? Or does the modern shariah require father’s permission and allow him to charge for it? If so, does this extend just to the first marriage or for the entirety of woman’s life? What happens if the father is dead?

2

In some Muslim societies, they do (although societies where women have equal legal rights and economic autonomy have generally moved away from formal dowry arrangements).

In Saudi Arabia, however, women are not considered autonomous agents. Even adult Saudi women are expected to have a relative serving as their official guardian, usually a husband, father or brother. Activities ranging from travel to employment to enrolling in school to marriage are not considered legitimate for a woman without the guardian’s permission. Consequently, it’s the guardian (who for an unmarried woman is usually her father) who is officially in charge of marriage negotiations.