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The International Conference on Bride Price and Development will bring
together experts in the fields of harmful socio-cultural practices
which contribute to gender violence and inequality, experts on reproductive
health and rights, activists on the rights of women and children,
politicians and other stakeholders from Governments, intergovernmental
agencies, academia, the media, civil society organisations and educationists.
The purpose
The purpose is to develop a programme of action to reduce or remove
the significance of bride price as a factor contributing to violence
and gender inequality, hindering the improvement in the quality of
life of families and the realisation of the rights of children in
the countries where it is practiced.
Objectives
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To present evidence and expert opinion on the
intersection between bride price and identified socio-cultural
practices, and human rights violation, poverty and gender inequality.
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To provide a platform for sharing experiences
and innovative approaches across the globe on tackling bride price
and other harmful cultural practices.
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To bring together groups and individuals from
countries affected by the practice, and representatives from governments,
intergovernmental bodies and civil society, to adopt a declaration
of action for the reform or removal of bride price
Accomodation and transport
The conference is free but participants will have to meet their transport
and accommodation costs. Places are limited and priority will be given
on the strength of participant’s contribution to the event.
Venue
The conference will be held on the spacious grounds of Makerere University
Campus at the newly constructed computer centre complex, complete
with conference facilities. International delegates will be accommodated
on the university grounds. Conference places are limited so early
booking is advisable.
Languages
The conference will be conducted mainly in English but translation
into French will be available.
call for papers
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In Africa women are literally "bought"
and "sold" through the institution of bride price. In a
typical African setting, bride price consists of a contract where
the groom pays material items or money to the bride's father in exchange
for the bride, her labour and reproductive capacity. If the bride
or wife wants to divorce, the material items or money paid to the
bride /wife's father must be returned to the husband. If the wife's
family
is unable to pay the husband, the wife cannot get a divorce and is
condemned to live in an unhappy and sometimes fatal marriage.
The situation is not unique in Africa. Many Arab and Islamic states
too consider bride wealth as a fundamental requirement of marriage.
The groom has to provide marriage gifts known as "mahr"
to the bride in exchange for her a hand in marriage.
In Asia, especially India, women are subjected to abuse as a result
of the institution of dowry where the bride or her family has to pay
dowry to the groom's family. The UK committee for UNICEF stated that
"dowry related violence, sometimes resulting in death of young
bride’s is common. For example, there were 999 registered cases
of dowry related deaths in India in 1985, 1319 in 1986 and 1786 in
1987. The numbers have continued to increase". The UK government
stated in the 1999 Human Rights report that "in India more than
3000 women were killed in 1998 because their in-laws considered their
dowries inadequate. A tiny percentage of murders were brought to justice.
Girls continue to be married off well before they reach the minimum
age of 18, especially in northern India".
On 22nd December 2001, the people of Tororo, Uganda held a referendum
on the reform of bride price, following a two-year campaign process
organized by the MIFUMI project. The question was whether bride price
should become a non-refundable gift. The referendum was won with 60%
in favour of reform. The need for this intervention arose out of our
work with women who highlighted the fact that bride price is a major
contributing factor to domestic violence and poverty.
Mifumi is leading women's rights and development agency with a large
constituency of grassroots women’s organisations. Our mission
is to work with rural based communities to reduce the burden of poverty.
To this end, we run integrated projects in the fields of gender violence,
education, healthcare and economic self-sufficiency. Our gender violence
intervention programme encompasses provision of information, legal
advice and support services, protection of women through the criminal
justice system, and the prevention of violence through public education
and work with young people.
Why bride price?
The issue of bride price and women’s rights has been debated
in Uganda mainly in the academic forum. In 1960, a national conference
on women’s rights discussed the issue of bride price and its
conclusions, contained in the Kalema report, were that bride price
relegated women to “an article of trade, to be bought or sold”.
The work of gender activists, especially through the women’s
world conferences since 1975 in Mexico, helped to bring women’s
rights issues to the fore, including gender based violence. More recently,
a seminar on bride price was conducted in Kampala, Uganda supported
by the UNFPA, following various research studies (see UNFPA, 1996:
Report on Round Table on the UNFPA initiative on Bride wealth). These
sporadic forays into the question of bride price have acted like a
feeble light that has nevertheless allowed a glimmer of hope to inspire
gender activists in the fight for social justice.
What marked the Mifumi Projects work on this subject from the above
is that while the above were largely limited to academic discussion,
the MIFUMI Project campaign and referendum transported the issue of
bride price to the public domain and placed it under the harsh glare
of women’s rights and gender inequality. The media attention
that the referendum received and resulting public debate over the
public and private divide and the relativism of culture over human
rights, allowed other aspects of injustices related to bride price
that had not been the immediate focus of our campaign, to burst forth
like bubbles on stormy waters; namely, issues relating to poverty,
child abuse and rights and women’s land and health rights. The
issue of the refund of bride price was the centrifugal force that
united men, women, the youth and the media, in the bid to reform the
institution.
Why we did it
It became obvious then, that bride price, hitherto a marginalized
discussion, was actually a chronic problem in the daily lives of the
poor and the marginalized, particularly grassroots women and children.
In our research it was apparent that the injustices occasioned by
the practice were not immediately obvious to the social elite who
largely viewed bride price through the positive lens of cultural values
and a peoples sense of identity.
Research and activism against a parallel practice – that of dowry
in India, led to the criminalisation and outlawing of the practice,
which did not however translate to changes in the traditional practice
that continues to jeopardize women’s lives. Yet while dowry has
received notable international attention, akin to female genital mutilation,
as a human rights violation from international bodies and governments
(See UNICEF, House of Common reports), bride price remains a hazy
topic lurking behind a smoke screen of culture and marriage rituals
in the deep forests of Africa.
What we intend now
The context of MIFUMI’S campaign against bride price is its centrality
in domestic violence both as cause and effect; particularly the tenet
that a woman cannot leave an abusive relationship because she cannot
afford to refund the bride price. Having thus brought bride price
to the public domain, and received a public verdict for its reform,
that the action gathers pace and momentum. This conference aims therefore
not to debate the verdict but to identify strategies and homework
to abolish or reform the
practice of bride price in Africa. This conference is happening now
because the time is not only right but nigh. Grassroots organisations
and individuals are asking, “What next after the referendum –
have we come so far only to stop short of the Golden Fleece?”
Indeed they are right to push for reform in the law, because the referendum
was the first time in the history of Uganda (and perhaps not since
the Women’s Suffrage) that grassroots people, and women particularly,
forced a social issue to the ballot. Such an achievement deserves
to be given the platform to push forward.
In Uganda the Domestic Relations Bill is undergoing its passage through
parliament amidst much controversy and debate. Sticky issues are land
rights for women, polygamy and bride price. The legal system of Uganda
disempowers women, making it difficult for them to exercise control
over their lives. Uganda like most African countries has a dual system
of law: customary and formal or statutory law. In both countries,
formal law preempts customary law. However, the principles of the
formal law, largely inherited from the European colonial powers, are
unknown or inaccessible to the vast majority of women, whose rights
are defined by local custom. A central feature of both systems of
law is the subordinate status of women. This subordination is most
apparent in marriage and is underscored by the tradition of bride
price (whereby a man and his relatives pay the family of the prospective
bride in order to marry her). This practice reinforces the notion
that a husband has purchased his wife’s sexual services, her
labour, and her perpetual obedience and consent. It allows a man to
treat a woman as he pleases, that is why although domestic violence
is common and widespread, it has traditionally been perceived as a
private problem, beyond the scope of state responsibility. Indeed,
in the past, husbands have had the legal right to punish or even kill
their wives. Only gradually, changing social attitudes and increased
reporting have propelled the problem into the public eye.
What has changed since the campaign
Since the referendum, the Mifumi project has seen changes in attitudes
of the people of the region about bride price. Public debate through
national papers has increased; we have seen parents, especially widows,
change their practice of bride price to marriage gifts without an
obligation for refund, we have seen resistance to the refund of bride
price by men – fathers or brothers who signed for and received
the payment.
However there are still many challenges as men continue to be jailed
for failing or refusing to refund bride price. In Mifumi, in one year
alone, we have recorded 300 incidents of bride price related cases
of domestic violence.
In the sexual and reproductive health sphere for instance violation
of women’s rights make them especially vulnerable to HIV/AIDS
in Africa. Although some international health experts are beginning
to recognise the link between women’s rights and HIV infection,
the subject is conspicuously absent from HIV-prevention campaigns.
Most public health practitioners see themselves as health engineers
and consider human rights to be beyond the scope of their profession.
Internationally, HIV campaign programmes focus on disseminating information
as a crucial first step in ultimately changing the behaviour of individuals.
However, if people cannot change their behaviour because they lack
the means to control their own destinies, information dissemination
wastes time and resources (Steiner, H and Alston, P, 1996). Women’s
sexual availability is underscored by the practice of bride price.
Feel Free Africa
We saw the launching, in May 2002, of the Africa Feel Free network
of individuals and organisations committed to the mission of pushing
for the reform of bride price and taking it to regional and international
law making bodies. It is clear that the issue of bride price has reached
a turning curve and there can be no turning back to a practice that
is now highly commercialized, having lost all its cultural values
of protecting women. This conference intends to start a process that
will capture the existing momentum to propel the issue of bride price
into the public domain and effect its reform in Africa.
Conference programme
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Day one
Bride price analysis : causes, roots and local justification/legitimacy
(plenary session)
Naming the problem: The place of bride price in human rights and development
Historical evolution of bride price (social, political and economic)
Bride price and gendered identities
Bride price, conflict and socio-cultural transformation
Religious and cultural perspectives on bride price
The human, social and economic costs of Bride price (workshops/seminars)
The political economy of bride price
Bride price and the protection of children from neglect, violence
and abuse
Health:
Bride price and improved sexuality
Bride price and the improvement of sexual and reproductive health
and rights
Bride price and the fight against HIV/AIDS
Gender violence:
Bride price, gender violence and interpersonal relationships
Bride price and improvement of family relations
Bride price and the participation of youth
Human rights/legal
Review of national and regional laws relating to marriage and family
protection
Review of alternative approaches to legal framework intervention in
Africa
Day two
Innovative approaches across the globe: elements, actors, levels
of action (FGM, dowry, gender violence) (Workshops/seminars)
Working with survivors
Work with men (perpetrators and allies) and youth
Behavioral change communication work with young people, the informal
sector and political leaders
Strengthening strategically important institutions (health professionals,
the police, the judiciary, teachers, social workers)
Lobbying and advocacy within the political framework
Mobilising future action: elements actors and levels of intervention
(workshops/seminars)
The challenge of building local and international legitimacy, increasing
choices for women, strengthening women’s safety, economic and
social positions, and mobilizing resources
Building alliances for change (putting bride price on the political
agenda)
Role of NGOs and government Institutions in improving women’s
positions in society and strengthening family relations.
Toolkits for social transformation and programme management (decision
making, problem analysis, communication)
Culture and National policy design and implementation (National health
policy, justice, law and order sector policy, education policy, national
gender policy)
Identifying and enlisting agents of change
Day three
Formulation of the declaration (workshops/breakaway groups)
Advocacy and public campaigns
Behavioral change communication
National policy programming, research and documentation
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