The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for MARR-PRACTICE-5

Feb. 20, 2024, 6:27 p.m.
Countries: D R Congo
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"[L]egal provisions mak[e] the registration of marriages conditional on the provision of a dowry" (17).
Jan. 16, 2024, 6:33 p.m.
Countries: Botswana
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"The payment of bogadi (dowry)" was discussed during the 2008 national consultations on gender (6).
Sept. 6, 2023, 5:32 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family" (para 1). "Gunjan Tiwari (not her real name) tells the BBC her petition is rooted in her own experiences of being rejected by dozens of men over dowry. The most recent incident took place in February when her father had invited a young man and his family to their home in the hope of finding a match for her...A lot of meticulous planning had gone into when and how Gunjan will appear before the guests. Her mother had chosen a green outfit for her because...more
June 8, 2023, 11:09 p.m.
Countries: Zimbabwe
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Payment of lobola before marriage under customary union is now mandatory after Parliament passed the Marriages Amendment Bill on Tuesday with a clause empowering marriage officers to ascertain whether bride price was paid" (Para.1). "[T]he clause on lobola that has drawn attention and saw disagreements as Government, represented by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi argued that bride price could not be used as a barrier for two consenting adults to a union as that would violate their constitutional right to association" (Para.3). "Traditional leaders led by Chiefs Council president Fortune Charumbira were of the view that lobola constituted the hallmark of marriage under customary union as failure...more
April 28, 2023, 9:47 p.m.
Countries: Tanzania
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Poor families who are unable to pay school fees or take care of their children often resort to marriage, seeing it as a form of economic and social protection. The bride price that parents receive upon marriage, often paid in cattle and cash, is also seen as a strategy to reduce poverty" (11).
March 31, 2023, 2:31 p.m.
Countries: Egypt
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5, ATDW-PRACTICE-1, ATDW-PRACTICE-2, ATDW-LAW-5

"[M]en have the right to unilaterally divorce their spouses (talaq), including verbally with a one-week period for official registration of the divorce, which leaves many women in precarious situations, whereas women who seek divorce by unilateral termination of their marriage contract (khula) under Act No. 1 of 2000 can only obtain such a divorce if they forgo alimony and return their dowry" (14).
Dec. 26, 2022, 4:41 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Over the past years, several ladies have recounted their gory experiences and how they were married off to settle the debts of their parents. Some girls were sold off as child brides to elderly men, in exchange for livestock such as goats and pigs, or farm products" (para 4).
March 25, 2022, 8:54 p.m.
Countries: United Arab Emirates
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"...Alternatively, women may divorce by paying compensation or surrendering their dowry to their husbands…" (28). This indicates that dowries may be present (JLR-CODER COMMENT).
Feb. 2, 2022, 12:28 p.m.
Countries: Madagascar
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"The practice of moletry, in which girls are married at a young age in exchange for oxen received as a dowry, reportedly continued. The parents of a boy (approximately age 15) look for a spouse for their son (girls may be as young as 12), after which the parents of both children organize the wedding" (22).
Jan. 6, 2022, 12:09 p.m.
Countries: Somalia
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"In the Somali and Islamic custom, there is something called 'Mehar' and that is decided by the parties to the marriage. The Mehar is a mandatory payment of a sum agreed upon as a gift by the husband to the wife. In the Somali culture, the groom and his family will bring money to the engagement ceremony - in most cases, the brides' family will give back some of that money as a sign of good gesture. The money is usually wrapped in a 'Cimaamad' which is a square scarf also known as keffiyeh" (1).
July 27, 2021, 4:39 p.m.
Countries: Madagascar
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"According to a 2013 report by the UN special rapporteur, the practice of “moletry,” in which girls are married off at a younger age in exchange for oxen received as a dowry, continued. The parents of a boy (usually around age 15) look for a spouse for their son (girls may be as young as 12), after which the parents of both children organize the wedding" (p 22-23).
July 23, 2021, 12:51 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"The wives say many of the men demand – and often get – tens of thousands of dollars in dowry, despite the ancient practice being illegal. The husbands can use that money to establish themselves overseas and obtain permanent residency or a new passport, leaving their wives and children behind – and in limbo" (Para 15). "When Amritpal talks about her marriage, she keeps coming back to the money she spent on it: She says she forked over $28,000 on the dowry and wedding; three days after they were married, she says, her husband told her to get $14,000 more from her father. Her husband, Kulpreet Singh, said all the...more
July 7, 2021, 10:04 a.m.
Countries: India
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"A husband has been filmed parading his wife's severed head through the streets after decapitating her in India[...]Police superintendent Arvind Chaturvedi said the accused had been arrested and a case of dowry death filed against him on the complaint of the victim's father"(para 1,6). We can conclude that dowries are present in India due to this incident of a dowry related death(NK-CODER COMMNET).
July 1, 2021, 12:36 p.m.
Countries: Uganda
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Asiimwe’s partner was asked to pay bride price in form of 50 cows to her parents" (para 2).
June 30, 2021, 9:05 p.m.
Countries: Mexico
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"METLATONOC, Mexico -- When Rufina Galvez thinks back to her marriage at age 15, it's not the wedding party that stands out in her mind. There was none. Just a payment in 1,000-peso bills and a case of home-brewed beer. 'I cost 60,000 pesos,' the vegetable seller said of the money, at the time worth about $600, that her parents received in return for giving her away in marriage. The custom of the 'bride price,' a kind of reverse dowry system in which the groom's family makes offerings to the bride's, has been practiced for centuries among many of the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Typically, it entails gifts of...more
June 29, 2021, 11:26 a.m.
Countries: D R Congo
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-1, MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Bridewealth (dowry) payment made by a groom or his family to the relatives of the bride to ratify a marriage greatly contributed to underage marriage, as parents forcibly married daughters to collect bridewealth or to finance bridewealth for a son" (42-43).
June 25, 2021, 1:58 p.m.
Countries: Ethiopia
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"A collection of pictures show the impressively large lip plates of the Suri people, a tribe that inhabit the mountains of the Great Rift Valley in the plains of south-western Ethiopia.The huge clay plates, which can be as big as 16 inches in diameter, are first given to children when they are just 12-years-old.The larger the plate, the more cows the girl's father can demand in dowry when his daughter marries. Cattle are enormously important to the Suri people and bring status"(para 4-6).
June 23, 2021, 6:44 p.m.
Countries: China
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Wang Yong, an employee at a Shanxi hospital, is quoted in Chinese media as saying that once the news of a young girl dying spreads, tens of families who had lost their sons would rush to the hospital for an 'auction war'" (Para 29). "30 years ago, it reportedly cost around 5,000 yuan ($1,035) to buy a female corpse and host a ghost marriage wedding, a 'matchmaker' who had been in the business since the 1990s told Chinese media. The price apparently skyrocketed in the following decade, and by 2016, the 'matchmaker' said that 'you can't buy a single bone' for less than 150,000 yuan ($31,059)" (Para 30-31).more
Feb. 18, 2021, 6:18 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

“Article 14 of the Indian Constitution confers absolute equal rights on women. The giving of dowry is a legal offence, but many families maintain the custom nonetheless. Until and unless the mindset changes, the cancer will thrive and continue to spread” (para 25).
Feb. 15, 2021, 9:45 p.m.
Countries: Egypt
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"A one-day mut’a or 'pleasure' marriage can be arranged for as little as 800 Egyptian pounds (115 dollars). The money is split between the broker and the girl’s parents. A summer-long misyar or 'visitor' marriage runs from 20,000 Egyptian pounds (2,800 dollars) to 70,000 Egyptian pounds (10,000 dollars). The legally non-binding contract terminates when the man returns to his country. The 'dowry' that Gulf Arab men are prepared to pay for sex with young girls is a powerful magnet for impoverished Egyptian families in a country where a quarter of the population subsists on less than two dollars a day" (para 12-14).
Feb. 10, 2021, 11:42 p.m.
Countries: Jordan
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Local sources say the going rate for a bride is between 2,000 and 10,000 Jordanian dinars ($2,800/£1,635 to $14,000/£8,180) with another 1,000 ($1,400/£818) going to the broker" (para 5).
Feb. 10, 2021, 11:41 p.m.
Countries: Syria
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Local sources say the going rate for a bride is between 2,000 and 10,000 Jordanian dinars ($2,800/£1,635 to $14,000/£8,180) with another 1,000 ($1,400/£818) going to the broker" (para 5).
Feb. 4, 2021, 6:07 p.m.
Countries: Syria
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"The dowry wasn’t much to pay for Eren’s well-off family, just 30 grams of gold in bangles worth $1200. Abdul wanted his father to ask for ten times that much. When Eren’s father said, 'I will treat her like my third daughter,' it cinched the deal" (para 22).
Jan. 31, 2021, 3:04 p.m.
Countries: Australia
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"CALD women experience higher levels of violence than the general population. CALD women are more likely to experience abuse by extended family members, abuse related to their immigration status, dowry demands and forced marriage" (23). CALD stands for culturally and linguistically diverse. The use of dowry demands against CALD women suggests that dowries may be used among some communities (RAO-CODER COMMENT).
Jan. 18, 2021, 3:59 p.m.
Countries: Pakistan
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"But Taliban sources told the BBC the practice was creating increasing demand from commanders for funds to pay a 'bride price' - a practice in force in many Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan and Pakistan by which money is given to a woman's family to secure her hand in marriage... Sources said the Taliban leadership was concerned over allegations of corruption against members attempting to raise funds to sustain large or multiple households" (para 3-4).
Jan. 7, 2021, 9:23 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5, ATDW-DATA-1

“’We have entrenched certain practices that make it natural for men to acquire a woman, pay bride prize, later you can say she’s too fat so you devalue her by divorcing her…there is no law that says a woman should bear her husband name after marriage’” (para. 28).
Jan. 1, 2021, 2:57 p.m.
Countries: Tanzania
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"This contradictory legal Venn diagram was further obfuscated by the Local Customary Law of 1963, which allowed Tanzania's many ethnic groups to adhere to their customs and traditions" (para 24).
Jan. 1, 2021, 2:26 p.m.
Countries: Pakistan
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Families often offer their daughter as a bride in exchange for money" (para 6).
Dec. 31, 2020, 4:24 p.m.
Countries: United States
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"Many of such marriages are a result of the poverty of families of these women in border provinces. Around 80% of women married to refugees in Iran are illiterate or barely literate and live in the slums. They are hardly aware of their rights, so they marry refugees sometimes for a small sum of money that is not inconsiderable for these families," Ashrafi said" (para 19).
Dec. 24, 2020, 12:25 p.m.
Countries: Palestine
Variables: MARR-PRACTICE-5

"A young Bedouin girl who wants to become a doctor is facing a race against time to avoid being sold as a child bride for 50 sheep soon after she starts her periods" (para 1).