On Wednesday last week, the lower house of Parliament or Wolesi Jirga passed a bill in order to regulate the worsening situation of marriages in different parts and especially the major cities of the country. The bill was placed in the floor of the house almost four months before and now it has been sent to the upper house of the parliament before it takes the shape of the law.
There were increasing reports about different practices in our marriages that were reported to be against Islamic teachings and cultural and national values. These practices were giving birth to so many social evils. The general public was desperately waiting for any kind of intervention from the members of parliament whom they consider the guardians of their basic rights. The reports included of the improper dresses of ladies, use of alcohol and other addictive drugs, inappropriate gatherings of men and women, unnecessary show-offs and spending in the marriages and invention of so many gatherings like return of Hajis, the birth of a child and numerous others on the occasion of weddings. There were also complaints about the high prices of wedding halls and saloons and poor quality of food and services. In the same way, increasing trend of firing in air and other dangerous practices forced the parliamentarians to come up with a comprehensive legislation in order to bring an end to all these evils. Due to the above facts, it was gradually becoming difficult to the middle and lower classes to afford the expenses of marriages while increasing desire of money and status in the society had given birth to increasing crime and many other evils.
As mentioned earlier, the bill was first introduced to the house almost four months ago but before giving it a proper shape, the concerned committees of the house worked to find out all the facts in this regard. For this purpose, all the relevant stakeholders like owners of hotels and wedding halls, religious scholars, lawyers and members of civil society were contacted and their views were taken and given proper presentation in this legislation. It is the reason that, the law has become a complete guideline to bring an end to all the complexities and problems being echoed in the society.
The biggest problem was emerging due to the increasing violence in shape of abduction and rape of females members of the society and social scientists had found out that the prime reason was due to the increasing lust in the society resulted due to a number of reasons but the prime reason was pointed out to be the increasing open interaction between the girls and boys. In the same way, the inappropriate dress-up of ladies on different social occasions of society was not infuriating a bulk of the society who termed them against our religious and cultural values. The increasing trend of alcohol-drinking has also been identified as the main reason of increasing crimes and other illegal activities in the society.
Some of the important points of the bill are as follows:
The bill recommends for all the ladies to wear proper dresses in the weddings. The exact definition of this dress has also been described in much detail. It also ensures that hotel owners should not charge the customers too high prices and these affordable prices may make the weddings easier for the middle and lower classes. In the same way, no wedding must exceed the limit of 400 guests. The wedding halls and saloons may be used for wedding ceremonies only and not for other gatherings, some of which have been mentioned earlier.
Some of the major objectives of this bill has been identified as bringing an end to the increasing Non-Islamic practices in the society. In the same way, the bill also aims to bringing an end to a number of practices on the name of tradition and culture which are giving birth to social evils. The bill also aims to promote healthy and positive practices on the occasions of marriage that should be in accordance of our religion and cultural values. The bill also regards its target the formation of an actually happy marriage so that there should not be any kind of problems between the members of the bride and bridegroom.
However, this bill has also been criticized by some members of the house as being creating restrictions on the civil rights of the citizens. It may also come in slight violation of the basic rights of citizens and freedom of speech and expression.
Anyhow, the bill also recommends that important members of society like political and social experts and religious scholars should work to promote good practices among the people and advise them to keep away from practices which are against our religion and society.
It seems to be the only solution for all the social evils as any rule forced by the law and authorities may never give the actual results. It is necessary that by proper education and persuasion, people should be driven to the healthy practices and refrain from all those gatherings and practices which are against the overall health of the society. Such a thinking approach would bring an actual end to all the social evils.