22-year-old Muslim girl marries a man of 70 in Bihar

In India, due to heavy dowry demands and extreme poverty, parents often marry off their daughter to man as old as 60 years. NDTV reports Crippled by financial crisis and poverty, 22-year-old Tehrunissa had to marry the visually challenged 70-year-old landlord in Gaya district of Bihar. The young girl has admitted that she does not regret marrying a man old enough to be her father because it was the only way for her to beat the poverty-stricken life. The couple has openly admitted that the marriage is not an offshoot of a budding love but it is purely a ‘marriage of convenience’. Tehrunissa says: My family is very poor and we cannot afford dowry. My father is not keeping well. Today if my parents die, who will look after me? That’s why I married him. While Ali Hasan the groom married her as he needed someone to take care of him. He said: I had no one to look after me and I was facing a lot of difficulty in my day-to-day life. That’s why I married her. However, the villagers are not quite happy with this union, as they think that such a relationship is not acceptable in their society.