u/Londebaaz_aurat

Yes, you read that right. I come from a relatively liberal family(women were never heavily restricted) but dowry was still treated as “normal” in every marriage, whether love or arranged. It was always disguised as “

"gift" yet everyone knew what it really was. What frustrates me even more is that the women in my family were educated, financially independent and earning but the practice still continued.

Where I live, dowry is so normalized that people rarely even question it.

Now, for the first time ever, my cousin is marrying her longtime German bf and this wedding will have no dowry involved at all. Even many of the usual wedding rituals are being skipped and honestly, I couldn’t be happier for her. It genuinely feels like a small but meaningful change for our family.

I really hope this becomes the new normal for future marriages in our family too; no taking or giving dowry, just two people getting married because they want to🥹