Border closure affecting marriages

NEPALGUNJ, NOVEMBER 23

Twenty-year-old Rina Ali Shaiyad’s marriage has been stalled for months now.

Scheduled to tie the knot with a man across the border in April, her plan went awry owing to the lockdown enforced by the government in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

As uncertainty over when the closed border will reopen prevails, the wedding keeps being postponed indefinitely.

“The groom has said he will come with janti (people accompanying the groom) but the present situation has made it difficult as it requires the administration’s permission for a mass of people to cross the border,” said Rina’s brother Shakir Ali Shaiyad, lamenting that the border closure had kept pushing the wedding into uncertainty.

According to Shakir, four other weddings in his village have also been deferred due to the border closure.

Elsewhere, Bardiya’s Thakurbaba Municipality’s Gopal Chaudhary’s marriage has also been affected by the border closure. He was also marrying in April, but before the wedding the government imposed the lockdown.

“We’d made every preparation for the wedding, but the government enforced the lockdown and the wedding programme was postponed indefinitely,” said Gopal’s father Sundara Chaudhary.

What is worse, there is uncertainty as to when the closed border will reopen.

When asked, the local administration clarified that the border would reopen only after the central government’s decision.

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