The Dowry Prohibition Act 2018: What Is Actually Illegal

The list arrives through the matchmaker, never in writing and never from the groom himself. A refrigerator. Furniture for the boy's room. Something for the younger sister's wedding. A motorcycle, mentioned once and then not mentioned again, which is worse. Nobody at any point uses the word যৌতুক, because everybody in the room knows what that word means.

The jautuk nirodh ain 2018 does not care what you call it. This is a plain reading of what the law prohibits, what happens to people who break it, and how a family can refuse without turning the refusal into a war.

What the Act says dowry is

The Dowry Prohibition Act 2018 replaced the 1980 Act of the same name. It defines dowry as money or any other asset demanded, directly or indirectly, or given or agreed to be given by one party to a marriage to the other, in connection with the marriage.

Two things sit outside that definition, and knowing them prevents most of the confusion families have:

• Den mohor is not dowry. Mahr under Muslim personal law is expressly excluded. It flows from the groom to the bride and it belongs to her. The full distinction is set out in Den Mohor Is Not Dowry.
• Genuine voluntary gifts are not dowry. Presents given freely by relatives and well-wishers at the time of the marriage, with no demand and no condition attached, are not caught by the Act.

The word doing the work in both cases is condition. The moment a gift becomes something the marriage depends on, it stops being a gift.

Three separate offences, not one

The Act is unusual in how widely it casts the net. The text of the 2018 law, published in the official gazette, creates offences for demanding dowry and for giving, taking, abetting or agreeing to give or take it.

• Demanding dowry — imprisonment of one to five years, or a fine of up to Tk 50,000, or both.
• Giving or taking dowry, or helping either happen — the same range of penalty.
• Any agreement about dowry is void. It cannot be enforced by anybody, in any forum.

That second point catches families off guard every time. A bride's father who quietly hands over Tk 3 lakh to keep the peace is not a victim in the eyes of the statute; he has committed an offence too. The logic is that the practice only survives because both sides participate, and a law that punished only the demand would leave the transaction intact.

A demand disguised as a gift is still a demand

Dowry in Bangladesh today rarely announces itself. It arrives in forms that sound polite, which is exactly why it is worth naming the patterns.

• The wish list passed through a third party, so no one on the groom's side ever says the words aloud.
• Furnishing the couple's room, where the specification keeps growing and the bill sits with one side only.
• The post-wedding request, made three months in, for business capital, a plot, a visa fee or a brother's medical costs.
• Gold framed as tradition, where the bride's family is told what weight is expected rather than asked what they can manage.
• Silence used as pressure — nothing demanded, everything implied, and a wedding date that keeps moving until something arrives.

If you are seeing any of these before the nikah, they will not stop after it. Red Flags Before Marriage covers what else tends to travel with this behaviour.

False cases are also an offence

An honest guide has to say this part too. The 2018 Act makes it an offence to bring a false dowry case with intent to harm another person, punishable with imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to Tk 50,000, or both.

That provision exists because dowry allegations have sometimes been used as leverage in unrelated family disputes, and every such case makes life harder for the women with genuine complaints. Both things are true at once: dowry is widespread and seriously harmful, and a fabricated allegation is its own offence.

How to report, and what to keep

Offences under the Act are cognizable and non-bailable, and they are compoundable, meaning the parties may settle with the court's involvement. Cases proceed through the criminal courts under the ordinary procedure. Where a dowry demand is accompanied by violence or threats, the Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 is the far heavier law and a lawyer will usually advise proceeding under it.

1. Keep the evidence as it arrives. Screenshots of messages, call logs, the written list if there is one, and the names of anyone who heard the demand.
2. Write down dates. When the demand was made, by whom, in whose presence, and what was said.
3. Tell one person outside the family early, so there is a witness who is not financially involved.
4. Get legal advice before filing, from a family lawyer or a legal aid organisation, so the case is brought under the right law the first time.

Nothing in this article is legal advice. Dowry cases turn on facts, timing and evidence, and the right forum differs from case to case. Speak to a qualified lawyer about your own situation before you act.

Why the practice survives the law

Bangladesh has had dowry legislation since 1980 and the practice has not disappeared, because the pressure behind it is economic and social rather than legal. Weddings themselves have become far more expensive: The Business Standard has reported on how inflation is reshaping the market, with middle-income families spending far more than they did a few years ago. Gold has moved sharply in the same period. When a wedding already costs more than a family can afford, an extra demand feels to the groom's side like one more line on a bill everyone is paying.

It is not one more line. It is the line that decides whether a young woman enters her marriage as a partner or as a transaction that can be reopened whenever money is short.

Keeping it out of your own marriage

• Say it early and say it once. A family that states plainly at the first meeting that they neither give nor accept dowry rarely has to say it twice.
• Separate the money conversations. Mohor, wedding costs and living arrangements are legitimate subjects and should be discussed openly — see Money Conversations Before Marriage.
• Put nothing in writing that looks like a schedule of payments, and treat any request to do so as the end of the discussion.
• Do not treat a large mohor as a substitute. Setting an unpayable mohor to balance a dowry demand simply creates a second unpaid debt, as How Much Den Mohor Should You Set explains.

Where amarjibon stands

amarjibon is anti-dowry, without qualification. We do not present it as a custom with two sides, and profiles or conversations that treat a bride's family as a source of funds have no place on the platform. Every profile is NID-verified with a liveness selfie check, families can be part of the conversation from the first message, and your phone number stays private until you choose to share it.

You can filter on what actually decides compatibility — observance, education, district of origin, and expectations about work and household — and the platform is bilingual in English and বাংলা, so both generations in a family can use it.

Related reading

• Christian and Buddhist Marriage in Bangladesh: Ceremony and Registration
• Romance and Marriage Scams: The Warning Signs Families Miss
• Den Mohor (Mahr) in Bangladesh: How Much and How to Decide

**Create your free profile on amarjibon.com, or download the app on Google Play or the App Store.** Marriage, taken seriously.