Ten couples from various provinces married in a mass wedding ceremony in Kabul on Sunday in a stand against the traditional expensive and extravagant wedding parties.

Khodadad Rasooli, the organizer of the event, said a number of the couples who married had waited years to tie the knot as they had not been able to afford the usual lavish affair.

“Couples from Parwan, Bamiyan, Ghazni and Maidan Wardak provinces got married at this event,” said Rasooli.

“Some of these couples had been engaged for seven, eight, or 10 years and had not been able to get married due to financial hardship; this is what made us organize this party.”

Weddings in Afghanistan are traditionally very expensive as dowries need to be paid, gold has to be purchased, bridal wear bought and hundreds, sometimes thousands of guests attend the parties at massive wedding halls.

Young couples often start married life in debt as they take out loans to pay for the event.

Sherin Sultani, one of the brides who got married on Sunday, said her new husband had to seek work outside of the country in order to earn money to get married.

He had “to go to foreign countries for work so that he could afford the expense”, she said.

“The cost of a wedding is very high; I could not afford one, as I would have had to spend between 600,000 AFN ($6,560) and 700,000 AFN ($7,654),” Hamid, one of the groom’s said.