Dowry and its Disadvantages

 Written by: Mir Aqa Atabar

Marriage is the civil right of every adult boy and girl. Islam gives the right to a girl to get her dowry but some families misuse this right and get more money from the groom’s family and face them with some problems

The writer/producer AEPO has talked to some people about this issue

Abdullah, a resident of Paktia province says: a boy was engaged with a girl in our village. The bride’s family wanted him to pay 700 thousand Afghanis dowry. The boy didn’t have the amount and he went to Saudi Arabia for a job. After five years he paid the amount and arranged the marriage.

The groom and his sister were insulting the bride for getting more dowry. At the result, the bride got her divorce.

A girl, Parwana says: one of our relatives married her daughter to a boy and got one million Afghanis dowry. Her husband always offends her for paying a big amount of dowry to her father. Now the bride has a very miserable life

Haji Malang Shah, an elder of Paghman district of Kabul province says: We, the elders of our village came together to reduce the dowry. At the beginning, we reduced the dowry to 8000 Afghanis but later, when the prices of all items increased, we also increased the dowry to 25 thousand Afghanis.

If someone wants gold jewelry, the groom's family could buy them up to 15 thousand Afghanis jewelry and all expenses of the wedding would not increase more than 200 thousand Afghanis. If anyone disobeys the rules, the elders would fine him

Najibullah the director of a local council, Bagram district of Parwan province says: a father of a girl in our village wanted the groom’s family to pay him one million Afghanis dowry but the boy did not have that amount of money.

 He had to sell his house and pay the dowry. When we heard about this issue, I gathered the elders of our village and they decided that no one is allowed to get more than the amount that is allowed in sharia. We also announced our decision through the masjids too.