Hyderabad Muslim bodies to boycott lavish weddings, impose fine

HYDERABAD: Alarmed over the trend of ostentatious marriage sin Muslim community, few organisations have called for their boycott while a group has even decided to

HYDERABAD: Alarmed over the trend of ostentatious marriage sin Muslim community, few organisations have called for their boycott while a group has even decided to impose fine on the members who go for lavish celebrations.

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Jamiat-Ul-Quresh, a body of meat traders, will impose a fine of Rs 50,000 if any of its members is found indulging in extravagant expenditure on marriages.

The organisation will constitute a ‘task force’ to monitor implementation of the rules framed to ensure marriages with simplicity.

The body, which has over one lakh members in Hyderabad, will also take action if anybody arranges song and dance programme or fireworks during the marriages. It asked members to desist from unnecessary rituals and displaying the household items given to the brides.

President of Jamiat, Mohammed Saleem, who is also a member of Telangana legislative council, said they took the initiative to make marriages simple and in accordance with the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

He pointed out that the poor and middle-class families in trying to emulate the rich, were landing in debt trap. Such families are taking loans on interest to meet huge expenditure on marriages.

Hyderabad has few parallels when it comes to ostentatious marriages in the Muslim community. Lower middle class and middle class families spend anywhere between Rs 5-15 lakh for the marriages. The expenses on function halls and food constitute about 50% of the total expenditure.

The lavish expenditure, besides the huge burden of dowry has alarmed sections of the community as many poor families are not in a position to perform the marriages of their daughters.

Tehreek-e-Muslim Shabban, a city-based NGO, launched the campaign for simple marriages with the slogan ‘ek khana, ek meetha’ (one dish, one sweet).

“Muslims in Hyderabad spend Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 4,000 crore on marriages every year. If we succeed in our campaign, this will improve the economy of the community,” said Mushtaq Malik, president of Shabban.

‘Siasat’, a leading Urdu daily known for running many social campaigns, threw its weight behind this campaign.

There are an estimated 25 lakh Muslims in over one crore population of Greater Hyderabad.