No Dowry: Upper Chitral jirga takes landmark decision

UPPER CHITRAL: The people of Upper Chitral’s Laspur village have decided to boycott of dowry tradition in marriages by passing a resolution in a jirga to end the social evil, ARY News reported on Friday.

A jirga in Laspur village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Upper Chitral town took a unique decision to end the social evil of dowry.

The village elders have decided not to demand dowry from the bride’s family nor ask the groom’s family to make unnecessary expenditures.

The jirga decided to make a social boycott of those families who are demanding dowry from the bridge’s family. It has been decided to avoid excessive expenditures on marriage functions for hefty meals and other traditions.

A citizen from Laspur village, Syed Sahib Jaan told ARY News that parents of girls were always facing distress for the wedding of their daughters due to unneeded traditions and dowry.

He said that the huge financial burden caused serious troubles for common families to marry their daughters after being demanded hefty dowry items by the grooms’ families.

Sahib Jaan said that demanding dowry from the bride’s family was an un-Islamic and immoral act. He added that the jirga has finally decided to end the social evil as the groom’s family will not demand dowry from the bride’s family.

“Whoever violates the [jirga’s] resolution, we will boycott the family.” He added that the local residents have also demanded the district administration to cooperate with them to implement the jirga decision.