With the changing nature of Afghan society, stratification of society into very rich and very poor classes and growing gap between them is becoming evident in the form of various social practices. Among these practices, one of the most dominant and controversial one is our marriage system. Marriage system in our country is believed to be spoiled because of the lavish expenditures made in them.
Marriages are organized in marriage halls and top hotels, with thousands of dollars spent to feed various kinds of dishes to thousands of people. Most of the halls charge almost $ 10 per head, which includes the charges of not only the food items but the un-necessary services provided by them, like the decoration of the hall with extensive light work.
Only in a single marriage party, throughout a single night, a bride changes almost 10 dresses, spends about six hours for her makeup and is loaded with heavy and expensive jewelry. Apart from that there are various other gifts for the bride that are arranged by the groom including many dresses not only for the bride but for many other relatives of her.
A marriage is meant to be a sort of bond between a husband and a wife and through this bond they are tied in a strong relation to be with each other through every thick and thin of life. It is the life after marriage that matters the most for a couple.
Marriage party should serve only as an event, while the married life should be perceived as a process that requires better economic support. If all the money is spent only for a single occasion and the life afterwards is spoiled, it really is a blunder. Apart from that, the marriage ceremonies are social practices. They do have their impacts on overall social norms and values.
In a society, the social practices are the representative of the society's culture. If they are based on high moral values the culture is considered to be rich. But, the marriage system we have been talking about is neither the representative of our culture nor they possess such moral values that can make the culture seem rich.
Most of the people of the country still live in the most backward areas of the world with the scarcity of the rudimentary requirements of life while a small number of people are busy in the most extravagant display of wealth. Such practices are going to further widen the gap between the rich and poor strata of the society and are going to make social mobility more difficult, turning the society into a stagnant and non-evolving one.