Teen girl refuses to marry merry man!
By IANSMonday, January 18, 2010
PATNA - Chances are that Mohammed Abdul Hakim is now sober. And still single. A day ago he was dumped at the altar by the teenage bride-to-be for being a drunkard.
Kulsum Khatoon, a resident of Naharniya village in Madhubani district, Sunday refused to marry Hakim after she was informed that he was habitually drunk.
“Kulsum stunned villagers when a Muslim priest began to solemnize their wedding and she publicly declared that she would not marry Hakim,” a local police official said.
She told her father Mohammed Razaullah that she would not marry Hakim. Taking his daughter’s side, Razaullah told the bridegroom’s marriage party to return.
In rural Bihar, where the social scales are tilted heavily against women, over half a dozen such cases have been reported in the last few months where brides have refused to marry unsuitable grooms because they are either illiterate or unemployed. Till a few years ago, it was rare for a woman to refuse a groom chosen for her.
According to the 2001 Census, the gender ratio was 921 women against 1,000 men in Bihar. The female population is 39.7 million as against 43.2 million males.
