Afghan Weddings Affected by Rising Gold Prices
May 24, 06 by IDEX Online Staff Reporter
According to tradition, when an Afghan couple gets married, the groom's mother presents the bride with golden presents at a post-ceremony party. The gifts include multiple rings, bracelets, earrings, and an extravagant necklace. The amount of gold given to a bride is both a matter of family pride and societal expectation. With the metal's recent 26-year high, the amount of gold that a bride can expect to receive is being reduced.
Gold's recent $725 per ounce price is affecting shoppers and retailers, says a recent article from the Associated Press. Mohammed Yasin, 54, owner of one of Kabul's many gold shops, told AP that the price increase may put him out of business. Two months ago, when gold was around $550 an ounce, he sold about $1,700 worth of jewelry a day. Now he said he's lucky to sell $250 worth a day. "Afghan people don't have much money. They have to buy food, pay rent. What are you going to do — buy gold or feed your family?"
Weddings are big business in Afghanistan, and account for 50 percent of the business of gold sellers. More than 90 percent of their stores' glass cases are filled with gold, much of it imported from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Said Mohammed Bashir Satari, a 28-year-old Afghan who married earlier this month, "Both my family and my wife's family went shopping together. I bought $4,000 worth of gold — necklaces, rings, earrings — and when we got back home, my wife said, 'It's not enough,' " said Satari, who blamed the high price of gold for his troubles, reports AP.
Despite the rampant poverty in Afghanistan, the purchase of gold is deeply engrained in the society. Poorer families often buy cheaper Iranian gold rather Arabian gold. Even so, they often have to borrow from friends and family members to buy their wedding gold.
Family members in Afghanistan also buy jewelry for the bride so she can wear as much as possible on her wedding day, a tradition that persisted even during the hard-line rule of the Taliban. But, according to one shopper who spoke to AP, "Everything is on the shoulders of the groom" to make sure that his bride is properly adorned.
