Thaindian News

Dhaka, Nov 16 (IANS) A Bangladeshi girl has created a sensation throughout the country after she dumped her bridegroom right at the wedding when her would-be parents-in-law demanded dowry.

Farzana Yasmin said she wants everyone to take lessons from the incident.

“Dowry has become a cancer of society. I’ve read in newspapers about it and have always wondered why this happens,” Farzana told BBC Bangla Service.

“When it happened right before my eyes, something happened inside me. I felt like speaking up against it and doing something about it,” she said.

Farzana, who recently completed her masters from Eden College, Dhaka, said: “Everything was complete. They were about to take me to the wedding car.”

Then she realised something was wrong while seated on the stage. She heard her would-be in-laws demanding “gifts”. “They said, ‘Where are the gifts?’ They didn’t call it dowry.”

“My elder sister reacted, ‘We are going to give you our girl, nothing else was promised’,” said Farzana.

An aunt of her groom came to Farzana and said, “We are going to keep this girl hanging for five years, if we don’t receive a TV and refrigerator, we won’t take her home”.

“I was dumbfounded! I asked my husband, who sat beside me, ‘What is this?’, and he replied, ‘My aunt’s words are my words’, she said.

Farzana took a stand and said it was not possible for her to remain there. “I’d rather leave than stay with people who ask for dowry.”

Though her family and friends found it difficult to support her decision in the beginning, they later appreciated the move.

“I have no regrets. May be I haven’t changed the lives of 10 people, but I want people to take the lesson that girls can do something,” she said.