Muslim marriage in South Asia requires the nikāḥ ( marriage contract), which is binding on both parties, and the mahr, which is a gift given by the groom to the bride on the occasion of marriage, for a marriage to be considered legally and socially acceptable. These features must be seen in a cultural context in which a marriage generally means a relationship between families rather than only between the couple concerned, an unequal relationship between the families in which the groom's family is of a higher statu…