The very door towards social acceptance in the country is of course marriage. Young singles are looked with suspicion and face various challenges in the society regarding renting house or rooms for settlement.
Kabul is a city where annually thousands of high-school graduated as well as school boys and girls come to follow education at various courses and institutions, mostly in autumn and winter time, from rural and suburban areas when schools are off. Similarly, thousands of others come here for non-educational purposes, for instance employment and doing small businesses.
But the already crowded Kabul city is far undeveloped to deal with the internally displaced people’s problems. There are not enough residential apartments and houses to settle down the increasing numbers of people coming from rural and suburban areas for different purposes. Kabul cheap hotels are overcrowded and in every single room of 2 by 3 square-meter, more then three and four people stay together.
The situation is even heart-breaking for students. Unexceptionally, all students, coming from rural and suburban areas, are desperately poor to provide their facilities. They do not have enough money to provide for houses or even for low-quality rooms. Therefore, they stay together and divide the rent of a room among themselves.
It should be noticed that absolute majority of these people come lonely---without their families. In other word, they are singles and, thus, owners of the houses and apartments are not willing to rent them at all. Because being a single is a kind of social crime here. Perhaps, families do not face problem regarding settlements much in comparison to singles who move into the city.
On the other hand, marriage has its own story. Here getting married is not as easy as that of other countries. The most critical problem along with others is the economic burden that would be imposed on the family of a groom.
The dowry paid by the family of groom is already too much and it is further increasing. Same is the case with other expenses like that of celebration, which now in Kabul is mostly held in luxury hotels, forcing further economic burden on groom families. Such expenses have become that large that youngsters often voice out concern and ask people to consider frugalness in marriage celebration and festivals. But, seemingly, even this request cannot put a brake, unless all influential people and religious leaders break their silence.