Abstract
This research was conducted to identify the impact of ritual dowry system on Muslims Families of Rural and urban area of subdivision (tehsil) Rawalpindi. Dowry Practices directly or indirectly affect the all type families. While some of its positive and useful aspects are described. The main objectives of this paper were to analyze that what is the positive or negative effects of dowry on society? For this purpose, rural and urban areas of Rawalpindi subdivision (tehsil) were selected. Thereafter, two union councils from each area and two villages /wards from each union council were selected. After that a total of 100 respondents were selected for interview and data collection. The selection of union councils, villages and respondents was made through a stratified random cum purposive sampling technique. The data collected were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and results were drawn. It was observed that the large number of urban respondents agreed with the view that increase in the dowry is the base of a happy marital life and all of the respondents opined that its effecting the other relations. The majority of urban and rural respondents belief that enlargement in dowry is a burden and one of the main cause of delay in weddings. Majority of respondents were agreed that demand of extensive and expensive dowry is the root cause of women deprivation, oppression and violence against women.