Overnight, wedding and engagement rings have become fashionable among young girls and unmarried women. The pathetic case of a female graduate of the University College of Winneba may well offer a clue as to why the clamor for wedding rings has become the latest craze.

The unmarried young graduate recently wept like a baby when a trotro driver’s mate proposed love and marriage to her. The woman obviously felt insulted and demeaned, and wept copiously to lament her unmarried status. The next day, she donned a wedding ring.

‘The Spectator’ encountered the graduate during a random survey the paper conducted last week to ascertain why engagement and wedding rings which are a preserve of only married couples have now become fashionable among girls and young unmarried women.

They procure the wedding rings, which they wear either to ward off harassment or to portray an image of marital dignity, honour and respectability. Some of these females actually invest huge sums of money in these rings which sell between ?150,000 and ?5 million.

The majority of the unmarried women the Spectator spoke to said they indeed wear the rings to protect themselves from harassment from men. “Whenever a woman is seen without a ring, it is assumed that she is unattached and all sorts of people make advances which embarrass us”, said one woman who spotted a very expensive-looking ring.

Narrating her own experience, the graduate who wept said sometime late last year, she was used to board a particular trotro from Haatso to Accra Central. Following this, she became close to the driver and his mate. One Saturday night, the beautiful slim lady said she was in her rented room when she heard a knock at her door.

The time was about 9: 30 pm. Apparently, the driver’s mate had inquired and found out that the lady was single. It might also be that, seeing her often without a ring, the mate easily concluded that she was single. On opening the door, she saw the driver’s mate who had combed the area to find her house. “After exchanging greetings, I questioned him about his mission,” said the lady. Scratching his head, the driver’s mate told her that he had come to visit her because he was in love with her.

The woman, who is now a tutor in Accra, said she quickly banged the door in the face of the unwelcomed visitor. “I entered straight into my bedroom, sat on the bed and wept like a child,” she narrated to this paper. From then, the woman decided on one thing- to get married or buy an engagement ring to put on. She bought the ring.

Another unmarried woman wearing an engagement ring said almost all her classmates are married. She therefore felt uneasy without a ring. “At an advance age of 41, I feel I must be attached, but meanwhile, I’ve decided to buy the ring to feel better among my peers.”

A good number of the women, although customarily married, also wished they were wedded. They therefore go ahead to buy the wedding ring and put it on to partially fulfil their wishes. Other women that the Spectator talked to said people often accused them of being bad women.

The Very Rev Dr Emmanuel Asante, Principal of the Trinity College, when contacted on the implications of unmarried women wearing engagement ring, said for those women customarily married, he sees nothing wrong with it. It is just a jewellery. A woman who is customarily married can wear an engagement ring. He said wearing an engagement or wedding ring indicates symbolically that one is committed.

Under normal circumstances, however, anyone who wears the ring should have been wedded, he said. Very Rev Dr Asante said any person who wears a wedding ring without any attachment is jumping the gun- meaning and this is not proper.

To those women who claim they feel uncomfortable and therefore, use it in protecting themselves, he questioned whether that craze could ward off men. According to Rev. Dr Asante, unmarried women who wear the rings ward off dignified men. He said those who want to get married should not wear it since men will not approached them.

Jewellery shops operators confirmed the new craze and said majority of women buy the most expensive rings. Others too, they said go in for copper rings which cost less- between ?40,000 and ?150,000.