Bangladeshi Women & Dowries

From IOL News:

Farzana Yasmin sought a divorce just hours after her wedding when her new husband's family demanded dowry payments.

Despite the stigma of divorce in Bangladesh, she is not worried about her future.

She wants other women to be brave enough to maintain their dignity in the face of dowry demands that have destroyed the happiness of millions of women in the Muslim-majority South Asian country, and led to numerous deaths.

Violence related to dowries has resulted in the deaths of more than 2 000 women in Bangladesh in the last decade.

The government outlawed the practice over 30 years ago, but it persists and is still taking a heavy toll.

In the first nine months of 2011, dowry-related violence caused the deaths of 268 women compared to 137 the previous year, according to Bangladesh Mahila Parishad women's rights organisation, based on monitoring of media reports.

Smita Jadhav - Increase in Dowry Deaths

From DNA India:

The new head of the women grievance redressal cell of the Pune Police, Smita Jadhav, handles a sensitive posting. As an incharge of the cell, Jadhav and her team have to counsel warring couples to try and bridge the gap between them. A student of history from the Fergusson College, Jadhav has plans to make the women aware of their rights. Chaitraly Deshmukh spoke to Jadhav to know about her future plans for the women’s cell.

As many as 48 married women in their 20s have fallen prey to the greed of their in-laws following mental and physical harassment over dowry in the last 11 months. What is your opinion on this?

"It is a shocking figure as we are in the 21st century and the city is witnessing increasing number of dowry deaths. Most of the women are in the age group of 20 to 30.

Women have fallen prey to dowry demands. Most of them are educated and belong to good families. Many women do not come forward despite knowing that laws have been made to protect them. Yet, they choose to remain silent and silence kills them. They sometimes approach us but later disappear. We cannot keep a track of each and every case but we make it a point to follow-up serious cases."

See also:

Death & Dowry in India

Dowry in Ancient Times & the Role of Women in Indian Society

Pakistan: Ban Bride Price

From the Daily Times:

Legal experts Sunday demanded that the NWFP government immediately ban bride price and effectively implement the National Plan of Action 2005 to combat women trafficking in the province.

The demand came at a two-day consultative workshop on countering women trafficking organized by the Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) in collaboration with DFID (UK Department for International Development) and UNDP (United Nation Development Programme) under the Gender Justice and Protection Project (GJP). The workshop covered both legal and humanitarian aspects of women trafficking.

Niaz Muhammad and Anis Badshah Bukhari, member inspection team and additional registrar Peshawar High Court respectively, highlighted the legal aspect of women trafficking and demanded that all sections pertaining to the punishment of perpetrators must be amended and due role of police and other agencies be included so as to address the issue comprehensively. Federal Ombudsman Director Mashood Mirza said that every year hundreds of thousands of women and children were trafficked both locally and internationally to use them in heinous crimes like prostitution, bonded labor and inhuman sports like camel race. Human rights activist Rakhshanda Naz lamented the poor performance of Pakistan in the TIP report of 2009 that placed it on tier 2 watch list.

“Early child marriages, IDPs influx and rapid surge in poverty in the recent past have also contributed to the trafficking of women and girls,” she said. CAMP Chief Executive Naveed Ahmad Shinwari said that drastic reforms in laws and inter-institutional coordination among the law-enforcement agencies and CSOs would help curb the issue.

All India Mothers-in-law Protection Forum

Article by Geeta Pandey @ BBC News:

A group of Indian mothers-in-law have come together to fight the harassment they claim to endure at the hands of their daughters-in-law.

Fifty women have joined the All India Mothers-in-law Protection Forum (AIMPF), launched in Bangalore city. A spokeswoman told the BBC that while there were 15 laws to protect the younger generation, there was nothing to protect mothers-in-law from abuse.

India's National Commission for Women has acknowledged the problem. It says that cases against in-laws are often registered by brides who are protected by strict anti-dowry laws. But a number of the accusations turn out to be false.

Female Foeticide and the Dowry System

From the Times of India:

"The Nanhi Chhan programme has been launched in the state to spread awareness regarding protection of the girl child and preservation of trees." This was stated by member of parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal while attending the concluding day function of the two-day 'Virasti Mela Dhiyan Da' at the Government College for Women here on Monday. She said evils like female foeticide and dowry system should be abolished as they hindered the society's growth.