Students pledge not to take dowry

Islamabad:At the end of an anti-dowry campaign at SZABIST University campus, university students pledged not to take dowry in any form at the time of their wedding.

The campaign was designed and organized by the Social Sciences department which included awareness walk at various locations in Islamabad, display of the cartons of dowry goods, crossed with red tape, at different locations in the university, signature campaign, awareness interactions with the fellow students and a concluding event.

Under domain name ‘Team Ehsaas’ and twitter campaign #Jahaizkhori Bandkaro, the students also prepared a small video showing mental and physical violence suffered by girls due to dowry issue. At the end of the video, the in-laws killed girl for not bringing any wealth to the family.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony, students shared the statistics according to which 2000 girls are killed over dowry issue in the country every year. They said that dowry is mainly a social mindset that is endorsed by everyone, be it rich or poor.

“Even if the girl and boy resist any such arrangement, the parents on both sides follow the tradition under the family pressure,” expressed Nadia Zeeshan, a student who was part of the team that organized the campaign.

Speakers termed it unfortunate that wedding events are getting more and more expensive with time which they said is another form of dowry. They said that no one agrees to dowry but everyone is ready to take dowry. “Unless this mindset is addressed, nothing much can be changed,” said one speaker.

At the end, senior faculty Dr. Rashida Qureshi appreciated the pledge taken by the university students. She said that Islam has encouraged staying simple in weddings. “Such traditions are not practical either socially or economically and have no place in any religion.” She hoped that the new generation would take a stand and change these traditions that burden the families.