Dowry-free mass wedding performed in Bangladesh

A mass dowry-free wedding of 108 couples, rare thing in Bangladesh, was held at the venue of three- day congregation of Muslim, which ended on Sunday on the bank of the Turag river at Tongi, 25 km north of the capital Dhaka.

Organizers of the congregation told reporters that all the new couples are from very poor families of different parts of the country. The wedding was held in presence of their guardians. A similar mass wedding was also arranged last year by the organizers of the second largest congregation of Muslims after Hajj.

Demanding dowry from the bride's family is still very common in Bangladesh.

A campaign is on against the dowry system as the dowry kills scores of women in Bangladesh which is the world's third largest Muslim country. Though Islam prohibits dowry, the system is present in the South Asian country in all sections of the people.

There is anti-dowry law in force in the country with punishment of imprisonment for demanding dowry, but it lacks proper implementation.

Many young people do not demand dowry before marriage, but they do it after marriage and very often torture the wife for failing to bring dowry. In many cases, the brides were killed by their husbands.

According to Home Ministry statistics, at least 250 housewives die annually, most of them are dowry-related deaths.

Source: Xinhua