Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR, May 4: Across the country, gold rates are soaring to record heights on the back of the wedding season, benefitting businesses. But in Kashmir, it is the Islamic reformists who are reaping dividends as more and more people are opting for simpler marriages.
Humsafar Marriage Counselling Cell (HMCC), a socio-Islamic reformatory organization which works for promoting austere marriages, is seeing increasing number of people turning up to register every day.
“We usually had 10-12 registrations per day. But for the past three weeks 18-20 people come to us and show their interest in simple marriage,” said Fayaz Ahmed Zaroo, an Islamic scholar and chairman of HMCC.
“We have been stressing on ‘no-gold-exchange’ as we believe happiness can be expressed without gold, and that is what our prophet has taught us. At Humsafar we conduct marriages between people who have registered with us according to proper religious traditions, and with less extravagance,” Zaroo says.
Over the recent years, late marriages among youth have become common in the Kashmiri society; a trend which the religious reformists attribute to “growing materialism” in the society.
Found in 2005 by a few youth, HMCC aimed at providing Muslims people an alternative for “deviant” practices in the society and has conducted more than 3000 simple marriages so far.
“I knew that if I waited for the gold price to come down so that I could buy my dowry, it would be too late. This is why many of our sisters were even driven to suicide. This has to be stopped,” says Jameela, a young registrant.
Although there have been relatively fewer cases of dowry-deaths in Kashmir than rest of the country, women whose families don’t pay handsome dowries are many a time subjected to ill-treatment by their in-laws.
And Humsafar, Zaroo says, was a “relief” for young men and women alike who wanted to keep dowry out of their weddings and opted for the Islamic way instead. “Families of both the willing boy and girl agree to certain conditions. ‘No dowry’ is one of them,” he says, adding, “We don’t allow the bride’s family even to prepare the wazwaan (feast) for the baraatis.”
Kashmir is known for its lavish spending during festivals and marriages, especially on buying gold ornaments for weddings.
Of late, the 21-day strike by gold jewellers over increased import and excise duties hit the panic button, prompting many young men and women to opt for simpler marriages involving no precious gifts. The reformers were quick to cash it.
“The strike by gold jewellers proved that even they thought it was becoming un-affordable for Kashmiris. It only reinforced what we had been stressing upon,” said Zaroo, who also runs a radio program ‘Humsafar’ every Friday morning to motivate people to shun the “evils” in the society and encourage them to choose an austere lifestyle.
