Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday appealed to rich people in the society to abandon unnecessary customs, such as over-expenditure on dowry, to ease the social pressure on poor people who cannot afford similar expenses. Tehreek-e-Saada Zindagi (TSZ) organised the seminar on “Appeal: Adoption of Simple Life” at the Peshawar Press Club. The speakers said that due to expensive and unnecessary customs, young girls and boys remained unmarried or committed suicides out of despair.
They said that the poor parents of brides and bridegrooms were compelled to take loans or sell their property to raise money for dowry, adding that dowry had become a form of extortion as the brides with little dowry may face mental or even physical torture. The Tehreek-e-Saada Zindagi president said that awareness would be created among the people through seminars, debates, walks and workshops in several areas.