Bride burning
Bride burning or bride-burning is a form of domestic violence practiced in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and other countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent (but not in Sri Lanka). A category of dowry death, bride-burning occurs when a young woman is murdered by her husband or his family for her family's refusal to pay additional dowry. The wife is typically doused with kerosene, gasoline, or other flammable liquid, and set alight, leading to death by fire. Kerosene is most often used as fuel. It is most common in India and has been a major problem there since at least 1993.
This crime has been treated as a culpable homicide and, if proven, is usually accordingly punished by up to lifelong imprisonment or death. Bride burning has been recognized as an important public health problem in India, accounting for around 2500 deaths per year in the country. In 1995, Time Magazine reported that dowry deaths in India increased from around 400 a year in the early 1980s to around 5800 a year by the middle of the 1990s. A year later, CNN ran a story saying that every year police receive more than 2500 reports of bride burning. According to Indian National Crime Record Bureau, there were 1948 convictions and 3876 acquittals in dowry death cases in 2008.
History
Dowry deaths
Dowry death is the death of a young woman in South Asian countries, primarily India, who is murdered or driven to suicide by her husband. This results from the husband continually attempting to extract more dowry from the bride or her family. Bride burning is just one form of dowry death. Others include acid throwing and Eve-teasing. Because dowry typically depends on class or socioeconomic status, women are often subjected to the dowry pressures of their future husband or his relatives.
Origins of bride burning
There are at least four perspectives on why bride burning came to be and how its existence has prevailed in South Asian nations, as detailed by Avnita Lakhani in her report on bride burning titled "The Elephant in the Room Is Out of Control". These theories describe practices that contributed to the rise of dowry as a whole, thus ultimately contributing to bride burning.
One of the more culturally-founded theories suggests that in a highly patriarchal society such as India, a woman’s role is defined from before she is born, which ultimately places her as lesser than men. Because she is seen as a burden and an "extra mouth to feed", her status as an economic liability promotes the idea that men, who are considered physical assets, can treat women as subservient. Once a woman marries, she is bound to her husband and his will because “society mandates obedience to her husband".
Another theory claims that consumerism, a primarily Western ideal that is newly founded in developing nations, has caused countries like India to become greedy. Because of this, dowry is used as a means to gain a higher socioeconomic status. As status is continually gained, the demand for bridal dowry increases in order to keep moving up the social ladder.
Lakhani also suggests that historically speaking, it has been noted that the dowry system may have been conceived as a way to distinguish Muslim from Hindu culture, creating a further divide within castes. A higher dowry would indicate a higher status and distinction from Islam, thus providing an incentive to demand a larger dowry.
Finally, some scholars argue that the dowry practice came out of British rule and influence in India in order to distinguish "different forms of marriage" between castes. When the dowry system was established within the higher castes, the British government sought to reinforce it in the lower castes as a means to eradicate their more ritualized marriages. Such forms of Union were discredited until only upper-caste marriage systems were recognized.
Controlling bride burning
There are current governmental initiatives to criminalize bride burning and grassroots organizations working to combat the practice, as well as international laws working against human rights violations. Finally, there are many proposed initiatives in place to end bride burning globally.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Bride_burning ]
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