I uploaded this picture of a gold pendant I recently started wearing every day. I got it when I was five years old and now I’m 19, but this pendant has been around for much longer than that. It used to belong to my mom’s older half-sister who raised her after the death of her parents. So, my aunt gifted this locket to my mom during her wedding, and my mom gifted it to me with some minor alterations such as the engraved “T” for my name. In my family, gold is gifted at happy occasions such as births and weddings. It’s usually only gifted to women because it is impermissible for men in Islam to adorn gold jewelry. The passing down of gold has been an important tradition in my family for many generations. Similar traditions are also followed by many other South Asian families. Gold symbolizes wealth and currency and was often used as dowry in the past and is still used for that reason today in some cases. I’m glad this hasn’t been a custom my family has followed. Dowry to me is an indecent custom trading the value of a woman in marriage for material things. Daughters and wives were considered burdens because they were expected to sit at home and not go out to work. How could they be a burden if they were supposed to cook, clean, and do many other household chores. Dowry downplays the value of a woman and I'm glad that has changed for the most part today. My mom received this pendant during her marriage, but she gave it to me just because she felt like it. I'm glad times have changed and women aren't only gifted gold when it comes to marriage

– ts

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant