Dowries are destroying Bangladeshi society as they spread across the country, harming women’s rights as well as human rights.
Demanding a dowry is a custom in which the prospective husband’s family demands money or property from the female’s party prior to a wedding. An old custom, dowries have a wide ranging effect on society. But it’s difficult see just how negative the effect is without firsthand experience.
This dowry system supports a controlling culture of patriarchy. When any female child is born to a family she brings the implicit tension of creating a dowry. The family believes that a lot of money must be given at the marriage ceremony.
In a modern reversal, now many women get divorced to regain their dowry.
All women are at the mercy of the dowry system. The dowry system is also ingrained from an early age in the minds of children. They witness their father dominating and sometimes abusing their mother. This experience instills a paralyzing but cyclical mentality. If the child is male he often becomes aggressive and abusive and if the child is female she loses her confidence to pursue her dreams.
Many social crimes in Bangladesh are the direct result of dowries, most prominently the uniquely horrifying act of acid violence. An acid violence victim is quickly rejected in our society. She becomes neglected by everyone in her life.
Finally we must unite to assert that the dowry is to be hated, ceased and forever removed from our society.
Photo: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060630