KARACHI, July 14: Take a look around the streets of Karachi and one will hardly see women adorning themselves with gold jewellery. Women here neither put on rings or bangles on their hands, nor do they wear gold chains around their necks.

A newly-wed woman may gently be admonished by an older relative for not wearing gold jewellery but will soon add an afterthought, “Don't wear it outside or you could attract someone's attention.” At a park or while going to a bazaar, if anyone is seen wearing gold jewellery other women make sure to advise the wearer to remove it and keep the ornaments in her bag. "Why are you wearing gold jewellery out in the open like this? Please be careful and put them inside your bag.” One overhead this conversation when a salon owner in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area was advising her client to take precautionary measures for protecting her expensive jewels.

This state of affairs is not surprising due to the deteriorating law and order in the city. Last year alone there were 21,238 street robberies, according to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, and 23,740 such incidents in 2011. Though these robberies are classified under ‘cell-phone snatchings’ the robbers also take away money and jewellery from the victims. So far this year there have been 10,332 incidents of cell-phone robberies.

One such victim is Nausheen Ahmed, a housewife, who stopped wearing gold trinkets after she was robbed of her four gold bangles along with her cell phone and cash near the Nazimabad flyover.

There have also been cases when muggers have been violent in ‘asking’ women to take off their ornaments. One can hear tales of bruised hands and bleeding ears when robbers have aggressively removed ornaments from women’s hand and ears. “This man pulled off my gold bangles so violently that my wrist turned blue and still hurts after a month. He even yanked my gold earrings that my ears began to bleed,” said Mrs Zara Omar, a resident of North Nazimabad.

Owing to these happenings, women have started to put their gold items in bank lockers. “I stowed all my gold away in the bank locker a long time ago,” said Syeda who works in a salon in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Afshan Taufeeq, a resident of Gulshan-e-Maymar, did the same when she was moving to the United Arab Emirates. “Travelling to the main city from the suburbs means passing through the troublesome area of Sohrab Goth,” she said. “We thought it was better to keep our valuables safe in the bank,” added Ms Taufeeq.

Nevertheless, the manufacture and sale of costume jewellery is on the rise.

And the reasons are obvious: It is low-priced, stylish and versatile. Imitation ornaments can also be customized with faux gems or colored according to one’s taste. This type

of jewellery can look so authentic that there have instances when robbers have mistaken it for real gold and demanded the wearer to take it off.

This is also the reason why silver has made a comeback. “People are now buying just as much as silver as gold,” said Mohammad Afaq who deals in local and imported silver jewellery at the Dolmen Mall at Tariq Road.

However, this does mean that people have turned away from gold altogether. “People now wait for weddings to buy gold and even then they don’t buy in bulk but only what they need to,” said Haroon Rasheed Chand, chairman of the Karachi Sarafa Bazaar Association. “If people used to buy five gold sets at wedding they now purchase only two sets. There has been little local purchasing power for a long time.”

A golden opportunity opened up two weeks ago when there was a steep decline in gold rates. But even then, according to Mohammad Gulzar who is the proprietor of Hyderi jewelers in North Nazimabad, buyers did not come to buy jewellery. They bought gold bars.”

There has been another trend that for the past few years, people have been buying gold for the purpose of investing their money. “People these days don’t buy gold to wear it. They buy it as an investment,” said Gulzar. “People now buy gold at weddings because it could later earn them a profit.”

Gold has hence not been completely forsaken in this city of darkening lights.