Another day brings another story of another Hindu girl marrying a Muslim man and being found dead shortly after the marriage. This kind of story is repeated so often in India that it surprises no one anymore.

26-year-old Varsha Raghuvanshi’s body was recovered from her marital home in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district on November 12. Varsha had married a car mechanic named Mohammad Arman, alias Faim, a little over a year ago. Her family was not happy with this alliance; hence, Varsha married Faim against the will of her family. Her family severed all ties with her. Varsha reportedly converted to Islam after the marriage. Though the family had disowned her initially, her brother notes that when she started facing problems in the marriage, her family reconciled with her and even tried to get her divorced and freed from the unpleasant situation she was in.

It has also been reported that Varsha’s in-laws didn’t like her reestablishing contact with her family. She had to call her family secretly when no one was watching what she was doing. Varsha’s brother also alleges that her in-laws were constantly pressuring her for her dowry. Though Muslims pride themselves on the fallacious claim that their culture doesn’t have the provision of dowry and that it is an evil of the Hindu community, the dowry system is prevalent in Islamic countries such as Pakistan, where they call it jahez.

Muslim women in India have also complained about their husbands and his family tormenting them to bring in more as a dowry. Back in March 2021, a young Muslim woman, Ayesha, committed suicide by jumping into a river in Gujrat’s Ahmedabad. In her last video, she charged that it was the harassment for dowry from her husband and in-laws that pushed her to the edge. Varsha’s death and the allegations made by her brother further prove that although the apologists of Islam grandly claim that their society has no place for dowry, some Muslims are still inflicting unbearable torture on their women to compel them to bring in money from their families.