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http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/08/ugandan-women-hail-partial-success-over-bride-price-system/
Uganda – Women Hail Court Decision Partial Success on “Bride Price” Issues
A Ugandan
marriage ceremony known as ‘kuhingira’ at which the groom pays a ‘bride price’.
The country’s Supreme Court has now ruled that refunding them if the marriage
breaks up is unconstitutional. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS
KAMPALA, Aug 7 2015 (IPS) - After years of a
protracted battle against Uganda’s “bride price” practice, the country’s
Supreme Court this week ruled that husbands can no longer demand that it be
returned in the event of dissolution of a customary marriage but has stopped
short of declaring the practice itself unconstitutional.
In
a country in which most marriages are customary, women’s rights activists have
hailed the decision as a step in the right direction for greater equality in
the marriage relationship but had hoped that the court would rule the bride
price – or dowry – itself unconstitutional.
In
Uganda, the bride price is the gift that is given as a token of appreciation by
grooms to the families of their brides. Traditionally, it takes the forms of
cows or goats, besides money, and some tribes have recently been demanding
articles such as sofas and refrigerators among others.
The
legal battle over “bride prices” started back in 2007 when MIFUMI, a non-governmental women’s rights
organisation based in Kampala, filed a petition to Uganda’s Constitutional
Court, seeking to have them declared unconstitutional.
MIFUMI,
whose work revolves around the protection of women and children experiencing
violence and other forms of abuse, argues that if women are empowered they can
rise above many of the cultural traditions, such as bride price, that hold them
back, blocking their potential contribution to development.
The
MIFUMI petition argued that the demand for and payment of bride price by the
groom to the parents of the bride, as practised by many communities in Uganda,
gives rise to conditions of inequality during marriage contrary to the
country’s constitutional provisions which guarantee that men and women be
accorded equal rights in marriage and its dissolution.
In
2010, however, the Constitutional Court ruled that the bride price was
constitutional, with just one judge, Amos Twinomujuni (who has since died)
dissenting, arguing that the main issue at stake was women’s equality and that
the bride price was a source of domestic violence.
Undeterred,
MIFUMI decided to appeal to the country’s Supreme Court and finally, in a 6-1
decision, the judges have ruled that the act of refunding the bride price is
contrary to the country’s constitution regarding equality in contracting
marriage, during marriage and in its dissolution.
Lead
Justice Jotham Tumwesigye observed that it was unfair for the parents of the
woman to be asked to refund the bride price after years of marriage and that it
in any case it was unlikely that the parents of the bride would have kept
anything involved in the bride price on hand for refunding.
Justice
Tumwesigye further argued that one effect of the bride’s parents no longer
having bride price goods or cash to refund could force a married woman into a
situation of marital abuse for fear that her parents would be in trouble owing
to their inability to refund the bride price.
Uganda’s
Chief Justice Bert Katureebe, one of the six judges, ruled that “refund of the bride price connotes that
a woman is on loan and can be returned and money recovered. This compromises
the dignity of a woman.”
The
judges of the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that referring to bridal gifts
as bride price reduces its significance to a mere market value.
Solomy
Awiidi, a legal officer with MIFUMI told IPS after the judgment that she was
happy that ruling had partly struck off some of the cultural practice that has
held women hostage in abusive marriages.
She
said much as MIFUMI had wanted the whole issue of bride price totally
abolished, the fact that court had ruled against refund was something to
celebrate after 15 years of struggle against the practice.
“There
are fathers and brothers of brides facing civil suit because they failed to
return the bride price, while thousand if not millions of women across the
country who have been abused because of failure to refund the bride price. This
ruling will liberate many of them,” said Awiidi.
Kampala-based
human rights lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, who has been the principal lawyer for
the MIFUMI petition, told IPS: “We have not got everything we wanted but at
least we know that people will start being cautious paying too much when they
know there is going to be no refund when there is failure of the marriage.”
Rita
Achiro, Executive Director of the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET), told IPS
that the ruling has shown that women of Uganda can use courts of law to fight
against laws that oppress them.
Achiro
also challenged the Ugandan government and Parliament to come up with a law to
enforce the court decision, saying that demand for refund of the bride price
will continue if government and Parliament do not enact a law criminalising
bride price refunds.
She
said there were precedents in which Ugandan courts had nullified laws
discriminating against women but Parliament and government had failed to enact
the laws needed enforce the judgments.
Achiro
cited the March 2004 Constitutional Court ruling that struck down ten sections
of the Divorce Law on the grounds that they contravened a clause in the
constitution that guaranteed women and men equal rights.
Uganda’s
Divorce Law had previously allowed men to leave their wives in cases of
adultery, while women were not granted the same right because they had to prove
their husbands guilty not only of adultery but also of a range of crimes
including bigamy, sodomy, rape and desertion.
A panel of five constitutional judges unanimously upheld the view that grounds for divorce must apply equally to all parties in a marriage. Women activists had hailed the judgment as a landmark ruling that would bring equality of the sexes but, eleven year later, no law has yet been enacted to enforce the ruling.