Naveed ul Haq
Budgam, Dec 20: AASH— ‘the hope of Kashmir’ on Wednesday conducted a mass marriage ceremony of 50 couples at Khansahib area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
Quratul Ain Masoodi, founder of the NGO said that at least 50 couples from different areas of Khansahib tehsil have tied the knot today.
“In the 5th phase today, we have achieved the target of 50 marriages, taking the number of overall marriages so far to over 250,” she added.
“Most of these brides are orphans and their financial condition is quite dire. Financially sound individuals come forward and donate generously, allowing us to continue our work but this is our last mass marriage function,” she added.
She further added that AASH has conducted scores of functions throughout Kashmir, in which it has helped the youth to tie the knot, adding that the NGO is now planning to shift the focus from mass marriages to mental health and child development.
“When we started conducting mass marriage functions years ago, there were only a few organisations working on this cause but now there are a number of such NGOs helping the poor people to tie the knot,” she added.
She appealed to people to make Nikkah ceremony simple to promote simple marriage in Kashmir, saying that it is unfortunate that the people don’t shy away from wrong and non-permissible habits, but have been showing reluctance to promote and accept the culture of simple Nikkah.
One of the bride, who tied the knot today, said that customs created by the people are pushing the poor people of the society to the wall, but it is the time when the people should follow and promote simple Nikkah so that the poor could heave a sigh of relief and would help to prevent the late marriages in the Valley.
