Play against dowry staged

LAHORE:Lahore Arts Council’s initiative “Alhamra on Wheel" presented play “Jahaiz” at Government Fatima Jinnah College for women, Chuna Mandi, here on Wednesday.

By staging the play Alhamra wanted to draw the attention of the students towards a very important matter of dowry that the women of our society are facing. People’s hunger for money cannot be finished on the occasion of marriage and they keep on bargaining for more dowry from the girl’s family. Before the marriage if the bride’s father is not able to pay on time, the groom’s family threatens the girl’s family of breaking down the relationship over dowry. After marriage either the girl is killed or threatened of divorce which is an extreme dark side of our society.

Through the play “Jahaiz”, Lahore Arts Council tried to educate our youths to change the mindset of people. The purpose of the drama was to encourage the youths to stay away from this social evil and “say no to dowry.”

The play was presented by Azad Theatre, written by William Pervez and directed by Malik Aslam. Lahore Arts Council Director Arts and Culture Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi welcomed the students and requested them to look into the issue of dowry because it was a dreadful and unethical practice in our society. Lahore Arts Council Executive Director Athar Ali Khan said that the play illustrated the pain of a daughter. It showed the pain of a father who wanted to marry his daughter and sells everything for her happiness and how he hurt his own self to fulfil the demands from groom’s family. “The play teaches us how a daughter wears a white shroud instead of a red wedding dress,” he said. He said that Alhamra wanted to change the attitude of society towards the girls by educating the youths through this innovative idea of “Alhamra on Wheel.” The college students and staff greatly appreciated the play. The cast of the drama got huge applause from the audience. Students and teachers of Government Fatima Jinnah College for Women, Chuna Mandi, praised the efforts of Lahore Arts Council to educate youths and said that Alhamra should continue staging this kind of motivational and an awareness dramas for the students. This is a concrete step towards the revival of the street theatre, they said.