It still remains a strong control from men over women and the degradation of human rights worldwide. That is the case of the Dowry in India.
A DOWRY is “the practice of the bride's family providing the groom's family money or goods in exchange for their daughter's marriage. Dowry consists of both money and valuable goods such a jewelry, refrigerators, TVs, cars and even homes. The typical dowry is seven times the yearly salary of the breadwinner. It originated as voluntary gift giving but now is considered obligatory if a family wants their daughter to marry”.
In India is very common to hear about Dowry abuse, the most common is the “bride burning” (The woman is restrained in the kitchen and doused by cooking kerosene and lit by a match) and occurs when the groom and his family burns the bride until death because the dowry was not enough. They try to cover these deaths as if they were accidents or suicides committed by the bride herself. Even that the dowry was avoided in the 1960’s, these practices still happen and as I read, the dowry deaths are increasing constantly (In Delhi, a woman is burned to death almost every twelve hours).
It is hard to understand this phenomenon of women abuse especially in a developed country that has opened its doors to a liberalize economy, but is a reality that affects millions of women around the world no matter the religion, status or country, by non-respecting our human rights, especially dignity.
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Reference
http://www.indianchild.com/dowry_in_india.htm
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/08/27/bride-burning-in-the-name-of-dowry
Laura, I have found your thought quite critical and interesting. Thanks for sharing them. You have done a good job.
ResponderEliminarFor us as part of the “western civilization” is very difficult to understand the concept of dowry, specially to think that if the husband didn’t receive enough money he is in the “right” to kill his wife, and make it look like an accident, even though it has been abolished it is a cultural practice that is been around for hundreds of years, so it has been difficult to take out from their background, but as India opens more to internationalization common practices like this one, and especially the role of women in society could have a major change, especially the respect of her human rights as any individual.
ResponderEliminarI really like the social comparison that you made, taking into account that it happens in a developed country and it’s been affected somehow by the globalization and maybe some western trends. Plus is a non common topic because people speaks about the gifts and arrange that the parents made, but no one tells about those murders.
ResponderEliminarI think that the best way to start stopping it is not by the law; it must be with rejection of the society.
This is a really shocking new. For me is very difficult to comprehend why are these things aloud, no matter the culture. The only thing I can conclude is that women are still very discriminated all around the world and even more shocking is the permanence of these practices within cultures. This show us that barbarity still remains in many places of the world. What is more worrying is the fact that if this things happen to women, persons, what other atrocities can be committed against other beings, including children and animals?
ResponderEliminar