MAIDAN WARDAK (Afghanistan): Some women in different parts of Afghanistan complain that their husbands continue to deny them the right to dowry and they cannot even ask for it to avoid family problems.
Religious scholars say that a woman reserves the right to decide on the determination of her dowry. From an Islamic point of view, a good marriage is one with a minimum dowry.
Bakht Bibi, a resident of Hazara village in Maidan Wardak province, says her dowry was set at 12,500 Afghanis at the time of her nikah (marriage contract), but she has yet to receive the amount.
“My family received 350,000 Afghanis from my in-laws in marriage. With that, they bought me household items, clothes and jewelry, but during the marriage my dowry was fixed at 12,500 Afghanis – an amount I have not yet received.”
She got married 13 years ago and is the mother of six children. Bibi says she has asked her husband several times to pay the dowry, but he refuses.
“We live in a joint family with in-laws, I can’t really ask my husband to give me my right. If he pays me instead of his family, his brothers will feel insulted.”
She added that she did not want to disturb her family’s peaceful life by searching for her dowry.
Fatima Nazari, a resident of Zaranje, who got married six years ago and has a four-year-old son, still does not know the amount of her dowry.
She urged her husband to draw up an official marriage certificate stating the amount of the dowry.
“I wanted to set my dowry high, but my father-in-law said they fixed it at 10 dirhams, which my husband should give me. But I replied that no one had asked me that.
“I told my in-laws that I wanted an official marriage certificate and that the dowry amount should be determined based on my choice,” she explained.
Nazari said she had problems with her in-laws and wanted to demand a high dowry so that her husband could not divorce her or marry another woman.
As a result, she endured violence, insults and beatings.
Zahra, a resident of Bamyan who got married about 25 years ago and has five children, revealed that her dowry was set at 50,000 Afghani but she has yet to receive it.
Zahra acknowledged that many women did not want to demand dowry because they were trying to avoid family complications.
For example, she said, “In our neighbourhood, once an educated woman asked her husband for a dowry and this demand led to problems and family problems.
Twenty-two-year-old Fatimah from Herat City said she did not know the amount of her mahar at the time of her marriage.
She said that in this tradition it is not clear that women should get their Mahar or have the right to demand their Mshar, generally women do not make these demands only during divorce, they demand the amount of Mehar.
She said, “Most of the time, when women ask their husbands for Mehar, most of the time the husbands pretend that the money their father charged during the wedding qualified for Mahar, what else do you ask, what is Mahar and who invented Mahar.”
Nazdana, 21, from Daikundi’s Neilli City, said that at the time of Nikah, her Mahar was decided at 500,000 afs, but she only got 150,000 afs and was not aware of any other amount.
She said that women never dare to demand their Mahar despite being aware of the amount of Mahar that should be given to them.
Nazdana said, “When women demand their Mahar, the husbands threaten the wives with divorce and other consequences and that is why women never dare to get their Mahar.
Married six years ago with two children, Maryam from Hadai locality in Nangarhar said her Mahar was 200,000 Pakistani rupees, but she could not get the amount yet.
She said most of the women are married in Badal and have no Mahar and some could not raise their voice because their fathers took the Mahar amount.
Religious scholars believed that Mahar was the right of women and this was proved by the Holy Quran.
Mawlavi Noorullah Kawsar said that Mahar is the amount of money given to the bride against the Nikkah, Allah (SWTA) created the Mehar Fard and it should be given to the bride.
He said: “There are two types of Mahar – Moaajal (urgent) or Moajal (non-urgent), it is the right of the bride that she can ask for it urgently or sometime later, it is reasonable to give the groom a Mahar bride, an individual who could not earn a living, to pay the Mehar , she could not marry because under such circumstances it is forbidden if a woman forgives her Mahar, it is a terrible thing, but there is no Nikkah without a Mahar.
He said that the amount the father takes from the girl is completely Haram and cannot be counted as Mahar.
Mawlavi Abdul Ghafar Farooq, spokesman for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), said that after taking over IEA 7645 properties in which Mahar women’s shares were registered and their documents handed over to the judiciary.
He said that about 4,600 were relieved of their inheritance rights, cases of 7,400 women were sent to courts, about 5,000 women got their inheritance rights, 4,740 cases of violence were thwarted and reports of this incident were sent to relevant institutions.
He said most of these cases belonged to Mahar, inheritance and other rights in which father-in-law, brother and uncle caused problems, MPVPV’s grievance redressal department dealt with these disputes or sent letters to relevant institutions for resolution. .
sa/mud/nh
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