Nepal’s Rautahat Muslims Fight Against Dowry

Nepal’s Rautahat Muslims Fight Against Dowry

The Muslims in Nepal’s Rautahat region have launched a campaign against what they called the “evil dowry system”. Muslim leaders in the region had a committee set up to end the practice of women having to pay dowries to the families of men for marriage. A Woman paying the dowry is generally a hindu practice but, over the years due to the domination of Muslims in nations bordering India (Hindustan) by hindus, some Muslims willing or unwilling took to the practice. This contradicts the tenets of Islam where the male pays the dowry. In the wake of the new initiative, even couples who have long been married have been told to conform. This is by the men returning the dowries they had collected from their wives at the time of marriage, several men have done so and those who have refused have and are being sanctioned. A popular Imam Maulana Mustapha was made to pay a fine of Rs50,000 for presiding over a marriage in which the bride had to pay the dowry. The coordinator of the Joint Muslim Struggle Alliance Haji Jikurulla was quoted to have said over Rs10million (rupees) in dowry more has been returned to families of brides. Though, It is not clear what their intentions are as Jikurulla was also quoted to have said, “As our religion doesn’t entertain giving or taking dowry, we are doing the needful to ensure that the practice is uprooted from our community; for this we have formed monitoring sub-committees in villages.”