Walwar - Bride Price

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
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Walwar is the sum of money paid by the groom or his family to the head of the bride’s household. Out of this sum, the bride’s family may provide the couple with a dowry (or jahez), which usually consists of furniture and jewellery/clothes. Walwar is basically a payment to the bride’s family in consideration of the girl who is given away in marriage, and is not specifically directed to be spent on the provision of a dowry.

Qissa Khwani: Walwar (Bride Price) And Marriage Among Pashtuns

How do you see this tradition of paying / getting price for a human being?

Have you seen this in other communities as well? Though the tradition is not a must in Sindhi society, but I did observed this in Sindh as well and the bride subsequently treated like Zar-khareed ghulam and if not treated badly someone may remind her that you were bought for money.

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Re: Walwar - Bride Price

Maybe some Pashtun could explain this better. Most of the families that I have seen from Pashtuns are similar to all of us. Anyways on the flip side we have jahez where the brides family is over burdened.

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Jahez is the equal counter part which affects bride side, where as traditions like Walwar affects both sides. Higher bride price may affect both bride as well as groom side.

From the article:

There is no doubt that economic reasons play a significant role in the persistence of walwar. **Hence, the girl can then become an asset exchangeable for money or goods. Her status, although already low in society, becomes even lower as she is sold as nothing more than a mere commodity. This is where it gets problematic. Very problematic! The fact that families commit a young daughter (or sister) to a family that is able to pay a high price for her, as a viable solution to their poverty, is one of burning concern. And because the custom of walwar motivate families that face immense poverty, deprivation and economic crises to “cash in” the “asset” – a girl who may perhaps be as young as six or seven – with the underlying assumption that the actual marriage will be delayed until the child reaches puberty. There is no guarantee, however, that this is really observed. **Some reports indicate the high risk of little girls being sexually abused, not only by the groom but also by the older men in the family -- male relatives that include uncles and male cousins, especially if the groom is naive and a child himself

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An eye opening report on Women Trafficking ( which also is done through Brdie -Price also known is Sir-Paisa)

www.netpak.org/wp-content/uploads/.../Final-**Bride**-**Price**-Report-.doc‎

As many as 77 % (135) respondents identified the age groups of the trafficked girls below 20. The accumulated average age calculated based on civil society opinion is 18. Of the trafficked women, at least four belonged to as low as less than 10 years of age, while there was a case of above 51 years as well. Young girls are in greater demand. One reason for this high demand is that they are easily manageable and can be productive for a longer period.

Table 3: Marriage Purpose
[TABLE="width: 389, align: center"]

Group

Data

Sex

23

Labor

26

Both

117

Others

7

No Reply

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** Total**

*175 *

Once trafficked in the garb of marriage, there are endless sufferings for women ranging from sexual exploitation to eternal labor. They are maltreated by the in-laws, who treat them as commodities they have purchased to render various services. The ill-treatment at the hands of the in-laws is a routine. Some of the woes of the trafficked women pointed out by the civil society respondents are as under:

  • A majority of the girls sold into marriage or returning back are either re-sold or live under pathetic conditions at the parents’ house or are booked under the false cases of the Zina Ordinance.
  • The husband family first tries to pressurize the parents of the girls into returning the girls and most often the girls are returned as the parents do not have the resources to give back the money taken from the groom’s family.
  • T*he status of the girls bought under marriage is that of a paid commodity or service provider rather than a legitimate marriage partner. They usually serve as farm laborers and a free sex partner. *
  • There is no respect for the trafficked women and the in-laws behaviour with such girls is insulting, leading, invariably to the girls being mentally disturbed facing acute psychological problems.
  • The majority of the people are of the opinion that marriages arranged with people from Punjab are not successful. From 70 to 80 per cent of the known cases of those who have returned home end up with a divorce.
  • Another opinion was that such marriages are not real marriages in the normal sense but a way to procure cheap labor. Girls return and cases are lodged at the police stations by the purchasers.

The reasons why girls from NWFP become victims of trafficking business are several. The primary causes that lure them into the trap are poverty of the girls’ family, ignorance of the parents and their exploitation by those engaged in the business, lack of awareness and education of the people, absence of proper laws to contain the practice and non-implementation of existing laws and statutes (including international covenants) that can help put an end to the practice.

In the light of the responses received during the survey, the top reason cited for the practice was poverty (96), followed by lack of education/awareness (39), traditional practice (16) and others such as lust for money, price-hike, lack of legal framework, etc., as seen in the following table:

Table 4: Reasons for Women Trafficking
[TABLE="align: center"]

S No

*Reasons *

*Data *

1

Poverty

96

2

Lack of education/awareness

39

3

Tradition

16

4

Lust for money

13

5

Price-hike

9

6

Lack of laws

8

7

Don’t know

1

*Total *

182

*****The total figure is high because of multiple responses

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Re: Walwar - Bride Price

Lobolo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In December 2005, the South African National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL) condemned the Constitutional Court decision to legalise gay marriage, primarily because this decision would go against lobola practices.

:hmmm:

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@muqawwee123 this is one of the many instances in which pre-Islamic Pashto and Islam is run parallel, side by side, by Pashtuns. It is basically Pashtun equalant of of Haq-e-mahar and it is paid in addition to haq-e-mahar. The criticism on walwar is because of its price tag notion but same can be said about haq-e-mahar

While amount of haq-e-mahar is determined by bride, in walwar girl has no say in it and is determined by the two families. A misconception exists that walwar means selling of girl i.e father keeps the cash, thats not true. The big chunk of walwar is paid in zar or gold jewelery by family of bridegroom, which the father of bride will give to his daughter at the occasion of wedding and reukhsati. Rest is paid in cash which the bride’s father will consume on expenditures of marraige and will buy presents for her daughter which you can call dowery. That is burden is entirely on bridegroom in pashtun society. This is oppoiste to Hindi societies in which a very big burden is placed on bride’s family through jahaiz and sharing marriage expenditures.

haq-e-mahar is also paid , but is small in amount. In the presence of already existing haq-e-mahar of Islam, walwar is very inappropriate. Syed Ahmad Bareilwi declared it a bid’aa and tried to discourage it but met the resistance from Pashtuns of Peshawar valley.

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Re: Walwar - Bride Price

It only affects bridegroom side. Keep in mind it is not a poverty issue, it is custom, a cultural practice, Very wealthy Pashtun families pay or get paid in crores or crores worth of jewelery. Its not a burden on bride as i have observed that the jewellary she recives in walwar, later helps her a lot in difficult times.

About the human trafficking, i have heard that some families in Afghanistan (not just pashtuns but also hazaras and tajiks), are selling their daughters for cash, due to the poverty and devastation caused by continuous wars there. Thats not walwar, thats selling

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Re: Walwar - Bride Price

The concept of walwar also exists in other communities. Uzbeks and other central asians use term qalin for bride price, Tajiks call it Shirbahd. Hazaras of central Afghanistan also practice it.

Soviets put ban on qalin i.e bride price custom in central asia but it persisted and the law failed.