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Old grooms sweep Hyderabad brides

Old grooms sweep Hyderabad brides

Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 28, 2004

Many Arabs wanting to marry a young Hyderabadi woman or two for a price slip into the city on the pretext of seeking medical treatment. That's how 73-year-old Mohammed Jaffer Yakub Hasan came to be in the old Arab quarter of Barkas, where he mar­ried three young women over a period of a few days. He is now in police custody.

This was his sixth visit to the city since 2001. Not once was he asked by the police what his ailment was.

Unlike Pakistanis, Arabs visiting the city are in the police' good books. The sheikhs are neither profiled nor do they have to report to the police anytime dur­ing their visit.

Police feel constrained by the relative freedom with which visitors from Ara­bian countries can move around in the Old City They say it would help if they were empowered to keep tabs on Arabs visiting the city, as on Pakistanis.

Arabs visiting the city in search of girls to marry are not a new phenome­non, but the system of 'contract mar­riages' is. Under this system, the suitor, usually an old man who is not rich enough to find a bride back home, lands in the city, has a shotgun wedding, spends some time with her and goes back home alone. The girl's parents get a certain sum of money

Earlier, Arabs used to take their brides back with them, but that stopped when the Gulf nations restricted their citizens from bringing home a foreign bride unless they took prior permission from the authorities.

As a result, instances of Arabs flock­ing to Hyderabad for a young bride con­tinued as contract marriages started to `flourish. A number of brokers also cut into the action. With the help of some Qazis who were paid good money, they would arrange quick marriages for the Arabs. Divorce papers were prepared at the time of marriage itself.

To avoid media and police attention, some of the brokers even let out houses in Muslim-dominated Old City locali­ties to the newlyweds. The UAE nation­al Jaffer, who was arrested on Tuesday, was also staying in a house at Vattepal­li and he too managed to get two brides with the help of brokers.

The Arabs pay between Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000, including money paid to the bride's family, brokerage charges and rent, for each stay that might extende up to a month. For a second marriage m the same period, as was done by Jaffer, they have to shell out extra.

Police officers plead helplessness to track the Arabs, which they do in case of Pakistani nationals.
 


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