BRIDE PRICE WEAKENS WOMEN
By Charles Wendo

February 23, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Esther Wamara was employed with the judiciary in Rukungiri district until she got married. Her husband stopped her from working and sent her to stay in their village, where she tilled the land and looked after children. With time, her husband who was working in Kampala, went home less often.

He began by taking three months without returning to his rural home, then a year and eventually several years.

"I was tortured psychologically," Wamara says.

In the end, her husband returned home sickly. Wamara became worried and went for an HIV test, which turned out positive. Today, she coordinates the activities of people living with HIV/AIDS in western Uganda.

Testifying during the International Conference on Bride Price in Kampala last week, Wamara traced her fate to the cows that the man paid to take her. "I had no way of refusing. I had no power to decide for myself," she said.

"If there was no bride price, I wouldn't have gone to the village."

Atuki Turner, executive director of the Mifumi Development Association that organised the conference, said across Africa, women suffer many health problems because of bride price. A man who has paid bride price believes he has the rights to have sex with his wife even if he has a mistress and the wife fears this might bring HIV infection.

She cannot refuse to have sex with him or ask him to use a condom. Neither can she refuse him to take up a second wife, even if she is aware that a second woman increases the risk of getting HIV. "Bride price renders the notion that a man has purchased a wife including her sexual consent, labour and obedience," Atuki said.

"There is no point talking about behaviour change if women have no power to negotiate their sexual rights." Besides, some under-age girls are married off because their parents want cows. They suffer pregnancy-related complications because they are not mature enough to bear children.

Nora Kwoba, executive director of the Bukedi Development Foundation, said because parents are under obligation to refund bride price in case of separation, many force their daughters to stay in risky marriages. Some women are beaten up by their husbands if they take contraceptives.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200402230745.html