Eid brings dejection to a poor Kabul fiancé

KABUL): Eid is an occasion of happiness, but a young Kabul resident is sad over his inability to buy his fiancée a gift on this joyous festival.

Farooq, who got engaged a year ago, says: “I am dejected because I cannot afford to purchase a present for my fiancée. I don’t know what to do.”   

A resident of the Qala-i-Fathullah area of Kabul, the 23-year-old ekes out a living by selling second-hands clothes on a handcart.

Among Afghans, there has been this ages-old tradition of the groom’s family buying gifts — suits, gold, cosmetics, cakes, cookies and dry fruits — for the would-be bride.

Most of the families, whose daughters get engaged, care two hoots for the groom’s economic situation, Farooq said in an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News.

Pointing to his handcart, the man asked: “I earn no more than 300afs ($6.25) a day, how could I meet my fiancée demands?”

His fiancée’s family expects the hawker to provide them gifts on all festive occasions, including presents as costly as 25,000afs on each Eid and New Year.

Impoverished families generally complain of inordinate expectations of the would-be brides, who tend to lose sight of the economic vulnerability of the other side.

mrh/mud

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