Question: Write a composition expressing your opinion about “Dowry System in Bangladesh“.
Answer: Dowry is a payment from the bride family to the groom family at the time of marriage. At the time of marriage, the grooms are given all modern household gadgetry as dowries such as furniture, crockery, electrical appliances like refrigerators, television etc as well as personal items of clothing, jewellery and cash. Despite modernisation and increasing role of women in all walks of life, the practice of dowry in Bangladesh is becoming more widespread. This dowry system is creating social problems. Due to dowry, the birth of a daughter is not welcomed and in some families considered a social curse.
The moment a baby girl is born, the parents start worrying about the dowry of this newborn daughter. They try hard to save money for their daughter’s marriage. In middle-class families, parents try to save as much money as possible, giving up their own comforts of life in order to see their daughters happy after marriage.
If a bride’s family fails to satisfy the groom’s family with the fixed amount of dowry, the bride will be cruelly treated. They are physically beaten by the in-laws and in many cases will be burnt to death.
Dowry has become a very common word in all classes and it is practised in Bangladesh without any inhibition or ill-feelings. Most of the parents of the grooms think that dowry is a legal claim. But in Islam, there is a provision to pay “Den Mahar” or “Mohrana” from the grooms to the brides is paid in cash before the marriage is solemnized. But we are going against the rules of Islam. Many innocent girls are becoming helpless victims of torture and harassment due to dowry. A large number of young girls have to face humiliation because of their parent’s inability to pay the dowry.
Dowry is social cancer no doubt. We have to eradicate this problem from our society. We have to make people conscious against this vice. They should be made understand that dowry in both sins in the eye of Islam and a crime against the existing law of the country. We should bear it in mind that only enacting laws won’t stop taking and giving dowry in Bangladesh. The law enforcing authority should apply this law strictly. Only then we will be able to remove dowry from Bangladesh.