Bride-Price Key in Increasing Rate of Rape

The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)

Binyam Tamene, Addis Ababa

High bride price levied on men by families and relatives of the would-be wife has been found to be a key factor for the increased rate of rape and abduction in the country, a report by CARE-Ethiopia said on Tuesday.

CARE Ethiopia reported this while launching a new project entitled 'Healthy Unions: Behavioural Change to Eliminate Bride Price, Bride Abduction, and Early Marriage in Ethiopia' in partnering with the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia Men who are unable to afford the bride price abduct young women and rape them, making them unmarriageable, CARE-Ethiopia said in the report on Marriage-related harmful practices (HTPS) The report said bride price, bride abduction and early marriage are harmful practices, throughout Ethiopia, shaped by economic and social conditions and steeped in cultural and traditional norms.

Speaking at a launching of the project during a workshop, CARE Ethiopia, Health Union Project Manager Seifu Taddess said while some believe that the practice of providing a bride price symbolizes the bond between the two new families, the price of the bride often negatively wraps the term of the marriage.

"Bride price often negatively colors the terms of the marriage from the outset where women are viewed as property to be bought and sold the wife forfeits her decision-making position within the household," he said.

He added that the practice on the younger girls was viewed as "more valuable" as wives, thereby increasing the likelihood of child marriages.

Seifu said the issue of bride price reinforces and contributes to bride abduction.

Although the Ethiopian law, amended in 2004 to penalize abduction with 3-10 years incarceration, the law remains largely ignored by law enforcement and the judicial system, according to CARE Ethiopia.

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