Difficult to find Grooms for Hyderabad's 'over qualified' Muslim Women

HYDERABAD: City match-maker, Shahid Farooqui, has been faced with an unusual problem of late: of 'over qualified' brides-to-be. Though his bag is teaming with profiles of several eligible women from the Muslim community between 23 and 35 years of age, he has been struggling to get many of them a perfect match. Reason? All these girls are armed with graduate/post-graduate degrees (M Sc, B Ed, M Tech or even B Tech) now a trend, almost unheard of until a few years ago. As a result, Farooqui says, it's become a herculean task to find these educated women, equally qualified grooms.

"Seven out of 10 women seeking alliances these days are well educated. Given that several men aren't still particularly interested in a girl's education (many aren't qualified themselves) and pay more attention to her looks and financial status, it's getting difficult to find these prospective brides an appropriate match," the middle-aged marriage 'guru' says while also adding how a lot of families from the lower rungs of society are, thus, forced to "compromise".

Take for instance, Roshna (name changed) of Mallepally. Despite a B Ed degree in her kitty the young girl was forced to marry a school drop-out, as the family failed to find her a better match.