Pakistan's novel attack on poverty: ban wedding feasts

Meals are served; gifts in cash and kind are presented at each event. Companies offer special deals to purchase dowry goods, including washing machines, TV sets, gold sets - all on "easy installments."

Social workers and women's rights activists hailed the court decision by saying the law takes pressure off lower-income groups who feel obliged to spend extravagantly on wedding celebrations.

"It has left a great option for people to free themselves from social and financial burdens. But ironically, when the government wants to provide them relief, many people try to dodge the implementing authorities and remain caged under social evils," says Fouzia Saeed, a social activist.

In recent years, people violated the ban by holding weddings in houses or in tents on empty plots instead of hotels where meals cannot be served. If wedding receptions are held in public places, then piña coladas and lattes replace mere soft drinks or tea.

These tactics are adopted by lower-income groups as well.

"I have taken money from my provident funds to marry my daughter," says Akhtar Hussain, a clerk at a private firm in Karachi. "I cannot send her emptyhanded to in-laws. I cannot listen to taunts of my family members that I am a miser or could not afford meals to the guests. But now I am left with nothing."

Many people believe that dowry and serving meals is according to Islamic teachings. However, the court's ruling disagrees - as do some clerics here.

"Islam teaches a simple way of life and not to exhibit the wealth. These customs in the name of color and even the giving of large dowries are all of Hindu origin and have nothing to do with the Islamic concept of marriage," says a local cleric, Maulana Mohammad Sharif.

But many here see the big ceremonies as important moments to socialize.

"Without serving meals, wedding remains colorless. This is our tradition. This is to further deprive women from socializing. Our women are not like women of the West who can go to clubs, pubs, and discos for entertainment," says Chaudhary Mohammad Siddique, the President of the All Pakistan Wedding Halls Association.

After the court decision, humanitarian and women's rights groups have stepped up a campaign against dowries. Social workers say that often brides who bring less than expected in dowry are insulted and maltreated by in-laws, including being burnt with acid.

"The rituals and traditions revolving around the wedding cannot be changed unless the attitude of society changes toward women," says Farzana Bari, head of the women's studies center at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University. "In our culture, the marriage is between the two families, two clans, or two tribes, and not between the two individuals. Unless marriage becomes an affair of two equal individuals entering in a relationship ... these evil rituals will keep on haunting society."

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