GETTING CLOSER TO MY MEGA-PROJECT

DOWRY SYSTEM AS A MAJOR PROBLEM IN OUR COUNTRY LEADING TO THE DEATH OF YOUNG GIRLS AND CREATING DEPRESSION ISSUES.

Today I am going to discuss dowry system as a devastating problem in our society. This problem is actually a root of others crises becoming popular in our country. It is a very bad practice and I think we should think over this problem and take immediate steps for its removal from our society. I just selected this topic because no one in our society is considering it a problem. Unfortunately people are blindly practicing this tradition without considering whether it is a part of Islam or not? My topic really needs attention because thousands of families are facing this issue.

Dowry system has long been practiced in our country. It started even before the British period. But the idea behind it was to make sure that bride will remain happy and financially stable after getting married. Parents used to give money, lands and property to their daughter as a GIFT for their marriage.

But when British rule was followed, then this rule restricted women to have their own property. They cannot enjoy that money, property and lands. So the men started to take all the GIFTS given by the bride’s parents to their daughter.

And now this system is turned into a fashion. Now a poor man cannot enjoy the wedding of his daughter just because he has no money to fulfill the high demands of groom’s family. Now parents start hating their daughters just because they think that they are a burden on their shoulders. Parents want only son to be their children and that’s a very negative thought because Islam gives women equal rights to live and enjoy her life.

Now a days groom’s parents are not ready to welcome a bride in their home yet they want only good furniture and electronic items .Due to this bad practice, bride’s parents had to take MONEY LOANS to get their daughters married and after that they spend their entire life in returning those loans.

Dowry is becoming nightmare for women and because parents cannot afford to have a girl child so they are killing them just because of the FEAR OF DOWRY. The groom’s family is misusing this tradition and are continuously burdenizing the parents of bride. This is an alarming situation and I think we all should think over this to eliminate it.

Recently a guy named Ali Zeeshan posted a picture related to the situation of Dowry in our country. Although it is just a picture but it shows a bitter reality in itself. It is shown below,

Now after having a deep thinking of this problem, I decide to met those people who are facing this problem in order to know what they think about the problem or whether they want this tradition to be eradicated from the society.

I have recently talked to a family who is facing this problem. The family has 2 daughters. One of them is 35 years old and the other is 29 years old and they are still unmarried. The only reason behind it is that their old parents cannot afford the expense of dowry. They were crying during the whole conversation that daughters are a great blessing of Allah Almighty then why people consider that dowry is more important than a girl herself. They were saying that if someone has daughters in the form of flowers in their home but does not has money to give them dowry then does he has no right to marry them. They told me that all the people who visited their home to see their daughters just refused them because they are not financially strong and all of them wanted dowry. I was very sad after hearing all this but I consoled them and made them sure that I would take steps for you people, you please don’t worry because me and my group members are with you.

Similarly I have gone through another case where a poor family has 5 daughters and none of them was married because they are unable to bear the financial load of dowry. The parents of these girls were literally weeping for their helplessness and were asking that this false tradition should not be the part of our society. They were saying that isn’t it enough pain for parents to marry their daughters? They said why don’t people feel the pain of bride’s parents on their wedding and instead of giving them satisfaction that they will take care of their daughter, they just demand dowry. They said that all the people are not financially strong enough to fulfill the meaningless demands of groom’s family. After listening to them, I asked them that they should not think of daughters as a burden on them. Daughters are the RONAQ of the home. I also made them sure that me and my group members will definitely do something to help you people.

SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM:

After all this discussion, I reached the conclusion that our society should take some necessary steps to remove this false tradition from the society. In my opinion it should be our first preference to solve this issue because it is causing DEATH of young girls. The groom’s parents should think in a positive way like if they were the parents of a bride and do not have enough money to give dowry, then how would they feel?

For this, I think we should start campaigns in which we will guide people about this abusive act. We should give them the Islamic references that dowry is not a part of ISLAM. Even our HOLY PROPHET(PBUH) was against the idea of dowry and he didn’t give dowry on the wedding of HAZRAT FATIMA(RA).We have to follow the teachings of ISLAM and the footsteps of our HOLY PROPHET(PBUH) and for this we all have to take action against dowry system in Pakistan. We can provide information to the people through social media and print media because now a days everyone of us is active on social media.

Similarly, another step that we can take is to encourage rich people to help the poor and needy ones because they also have the right to enjoy life. They can donate the money to the willing and deserving people so that they might find it easy to marry their daughters and bear expenses.

Another major step is to guide rich and financially strong people that they should not spend huge amount of money on the meaningless and useless traditions on the wedding and should not give a huge package of dowry to their daughters because thing act degrades poor people and and in return they try their level best to meet the competition without noticing that they have other children to marry too.