Bride-burning figures shock India Muslims

“National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics should astonish the world,” Aleem Khan Falki, an activist campaigning against dowries and the founder of Socio Reform Society Jeddah, told Arab News.“In this age of education and technology, could India be such a savage country that it burns one woman to death every hour?” he asked.The shocking figures […]

“National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics should astonish the world,” Aleem Khan Falki, an activist campaigning against dowries and the founder of Socio Reform Society Jeddah, told Arab News.
“In this age of education and technology, could India be such a savage country that it burns one woman to death every hour?” he asked.
The shocking figures released by NCRB last week showed that, 233 Indian women were killed in 2012 in dowry-related violence, or nearly one per hour.
The incidence of dowry deaths grew by nearly 3% over the previous five years, and torture at the hands of a husband or family increased by 5.4%, with 99,135 cases reported by survivors in 2011.
There are some 140 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India, the world’s third-largest Muslim population after those of Indonesia and Pakistan.
In Indian society, the family of the bride pays the dowry.
As a result of high dowry tradition, several young girls were obliged to discontinue education because the parents have the responsibility of getting them married off.
As a result of rising poverty, many activists have warned that the sale of brides has become prevalent in India’s rural areas.
Parents in some rural areas were also selling their kidneys to pay for dowry.
“Every son born into a family is greedily viewed as the ‘golden goose’ who will bring in the fantasized wealth through the dowry they will demand when he gets married.
Indian Muslims have urged scholars to campaign against the killing tradition.
Dr. Sayeed Haroon, a Jeddah-based consultant, said: “Simple marriages are the best marriages according to Qur’an and Sunnah, but people are going in wrong directions.
“Because of this, many young girls are sitting at home and not getting married on time and going astray or committing suicide.”