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| 'Ho Bahu prepares replicas of gold ornaments so that people are not financially burdened' |
Wearing gold jewelry at their wedding is often a desire of women, but in the current situation, it is not enough for everyone.
Whether you want to buy gold biscuits for future planning or make jewelry as a hobby, the truth is that buying gold in Pakistan is now far out of reach for most.
Due to the devaluation of the rupee and the economic crisis, the price of gold per tola increased by one lakh rupees in the last year and thus the price of gold per tola exceeded two lakh rupees.
So how to buy gold for your wedding? Mehwish Shahzad, who is a teacher by profession, has also gone through the same ordeal.
She says that she had been saving money for five years to buy a gold set for the wedding and now when the wedding is going to take place, the money that has been added is not even available for the set.
Mehwish, who teaches in a private school after BA, is like those girls from middle-class families who don't want to burden their parents with wedding ornaments, but due to the rising price of gold, their dream of gold jewelry doesn't seem to come true. Stayed.
Khadijah
Apart from weddings, gifting of gold jewelry on auspicious occasions was also common in Asian culture. Many people start saving money for their children's wedding gold ornaments at the time of their birth.
Mehwish says that his father died when he was a child and his mother's only concern was that the family to which he got married should get gold ornaments and a dowry of the same quality.
"When my relationship was fixed, mother asked for five years because at that time I was in FSC and mother was only worried about where she would get the money for the wedding jewelry."
Due to rising gold prices, the demand for artificial or synthetic jewelry has also increased.
Many people who cannot afford to buy gold jewelry are now using artificial jewelry. Mehwish is also thinking of buying artificial jewelry for her wedding due to the loss despite saving money for five years. In this regard, she is talking to jewelry artist Khadija Hassan.
Khadija, an artificial jewelry maker, says that she received more than 50 orders for bridal jewelry in January alone, but could only make 25 due to a lack of quality and time. Mehwish's order is also one of them.
After talking to Khadija, Mehwish gave up her dream of making a gold set as she realized that there is nothing wrong with wearing artificial jewelry at a wedding.
I told my mother that buying gold is not in my power now and if I buy gold, how will I get married? So now I will wear artificial jewelry at the wedding.
After the rise in gold prices, many women have started buying artificial jewelry to give to their daughters at their sons' weddings.
Imtiaz also gifted artificial jewelry to their daughter-in-law at her first son's wedding. Imtiaz has three sons, and her husband is a government employee.
Speaking to BBC, Imtiaz said, 'When a son gets married, the girl also has to give gold ornaments as a gift. In the current situation, it is very difficult for middle-class people to buy gold jewelry.
According to Imtiaz, when she went to a wedding this year, she saw that the girl was wearing artificial jewelry instead of gold, so she realized that brides are now using artificial jewelry more than gold.
"I made two sets of artificial jewelry for which I approached an online jewelry artist," she says.
Imtiaz believes that it has become difficult to keep the traditions of the past alive in the current situation.
On the one hand, if the purchase of gold has decreased, the demand for artificial jewelry has also increased, which has greatly expanded the business of artificial jewelry makers.
Khadijah
While scrolling through many such pages on social media, jewelry ads are often seen and women are forced to open and see them even if they don't want to.
Khadija Hassan also started her business during the global epidemic of Corona and after three years she got successful in this business which she had not even imagined.
In the beginning, they created their pages on social media because I realized that people don't go out shopping.
"But since the gold prices have increased in the last year, my work has already doubled."
Khadija says that this is the first time in three years that the business of Kandan Jewelry has seen such an increase. The reason for this is that the jewelry made of Kundan looks like gold and these days brides are more likely to wear it.
So when it comes to Kundan jewelry, its price is also quite high and it also takes a lot of time to make.
Khadija says that the raw material for Kundan jewelry is easily available but the quality is not good.
When I receive an order, they demand a set of kanbans that are not discolored. In this case, I have to use the best raw materials. I buy imported items from online sellers, so Kundan jewelry costs more.
Khadija said that she now receives so many orders that it becomes difficult to handle them. Hence they accept only as many orders as are available at the time.