TRADITION is often used as a pretext to justify some regressive practices that perpetuate the low status of women in society. If the KP Assembly goes the distance, one of these customs, dowry, may soon be banned in the province. For on Wednesday, the Jamaat-i-Islami MPA Rashida Riffat tabled a bill to ban the giving or taking of dowry. Those violating the law will be punished with up to three months’ imprisonment and a Rs200,000 fine. Anyone pressuring the bride’s family into giving dowry will also be liable for legal action. Some of the other provisions of the law are that any gift to the bride by her parents or other family members should not exceed Rs10,000; only beverages are to be served at the nikah; expenditure on any wedding ceremony should not exceed Rs75,000; and marriage functions must wrap up by 10pm.

Weddings in South Asian cultures are often an occasion to showcase one’s wealth; this spawns such an unhealthy competition at all levels of society that to host a daughter’s wedding within one’s means can mean a loss of ‘face’ for the parents. That is one reason why families see daughters as a burden, for whose marriage they will have to one day beg, borrow or steal. Meanwhile, for the families of young men, a bride can be a passport to acquiring cash and material goods. The lack of a ‘sufficient’ dowry can thus become a catalyst for violence against women, if not physical then at least a recurrent cause for mental torture. While there have been restrictions brought in from time to time to control unreasonable extravagance at weddings, only lip service has thus far been paid to the pernicious effects of the dowry system. However, in Pakhtun society, ‘bride price’ or walwar, an amount paid by the groom to the bride’s family in return for her hand, is a common custom. This too, perpetuates the commodification of women by putting a ‘price’ on her and must be addressed.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2017