We have many beautiful traditions in our society. Among them, dowry is one of the darkest and most harmful practices. Commonly, dowry demands begin at the time of marriage and put terrible pressure on the bride’s family. Human beings can suffer greatly when greedy grooms or their parents ask for cash, gold, furniture, or even vehicles. The evils of dowry have destroyed countless innocent families. Our young daughters are treated as burdens simply because they cannot bring enough money. In this cruel system, poor parents fall into deep debt or we can say that they sell their land and livestock just to marry their daughter. If we allow dowry to continue, we are destroying the very soul of our society.

In our daily lives, we must recognize the pain that dowry creates. We must refuse to give or take dowry when marriages happen in our families. We must educate our sons that marriage is about love and partnership, not about money. In this fight, we must support poor families who cannot afford huge dowry demands. We must care for the mental health of brides who are tortured for bringing less dowry too, because without kindness, many women suffer in silence. We must always remember that a woman is not a product to be bought – she is a human being with dreams and dignity.

The best part of our generation is that we can choose to end this evil. We must use our voice to speak against dowry in our neighborhoods and schools. We must stand as a model of simple and dignified marriage ceremonies without any dowry exchange. Most young people today want to break this old chain of greed and suffering. I try to tell my friends and relatives that dowry is a shameful practice. I think if each one of us refuses to participate in dowry, this evil will slowly die, and our sisters and daughters will finally be free.