MULTAN:
A mass wedding ceremony organised by civil society members with over 5000 guests took place on Sunday.
According to local residents, the marriages have been organized by NGOs and civil society as the dowries of over 30 brides were made by local philanthropists. “We began stitching up suits for the girls and dozens of people agreed to help out. We made quilts and wedding dresses and each bride has been given a dowry, some money and we have managed the entire expense of the wedding,” said NGO worker Nilofer Bashir.
Volunteers said that the brides and grooms had also been given personal gifts of a Quran, dresses and wrist watches. Chairman of the Qawi Khan Welfare organization, famous artist Qawi Khan told The Express Tribune that his organisation had been arranging similar events since 1991.
“We just want to support these people. All these couples come from the poorest backgrounds and none of their parents can afford to get them married. We just wanted to help out in any way we can,” he said.
Qawi said “For some reason people in our society always wait for a celebrity to take up a cause so I am hoping that this spirit of giving will spread.”
“So many people helped my organisation and it was truly inspiring to see entire neighbourhoods contribute to making wedding dresses for these girls and help arrange their dowry,” he said.
Khan said that his organisation had arranged the marriages of over 150 needy couples each year under the umbrella of Qawi Khan welfare organization. Speaking to The Express Tribune the brides and grooms said that we are thankful to all those who had contributed in the function. “I never imagined my wedding day could be like this. My parents could never have afforded to pay for such an elaborate meal and dowry but now I have everything I could possibly have wanted,” said bride Momina Bibi.
The parents of several couples said that they were extremely grateful to Khan and the dozens of volunteers who had helped arrange the function. “We could never have done this for our daughters but they have taken care of everything,” said Mohammad Bukhsh.
Qawi said that his organization gave first priority to orphaned girls who had no one to help them with their marriages. The organisation’s secretary Ashar Kamran said that they had hundreds of volunteers working with them and were proud that the event had gone off without a hitch.
“Over 30 couples have been married here today in the presence of 5000 guests. It was a massive function but we still managed to give each bride a dowry and we are so happy we could help them with this,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2011.
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