Amid lockdown, a virtual nikah in Hyderabad
Twenty-eight-year-old Najaf Naqvi and 25-year-old Fariya Sultana had a little over 24 hours to prepare for their wedding. Naqvi and Sultana were slated to get married with all the pomp and family presence in Hyderabad on April 5, 2020, before the lockdown was announced. Then, they had two options — wait indefinitely while the world gets back to normal, or get married immediately, without any further delay. The couple chose to do the latter.

On April 6, their nikah (wedding) happened with some 16 people in attendance (excluding the bride and the groom). The twist being — they were all in their respective houses, in different cities even, watching the wedding unfold on Skype, WhatsApp and other digital platforms. While the groom’s family witnessed the wedding from Kanpur, other relatives joined in from Bengaluru. In Hyderabad, only the groom, the bride and her immediate family were present in the apartment when the nikah was being officiated. 

The interesting thing is, it was all being done by two Kanpur-based maulanas, who were called in last-minute when the couple could not arrange for a qazi in Hyderabad. Both the families had permissions in place, and they took all necessary health precautions, including wearing of masks.