Refunded dowry after divorce outlawed in Uganda

KAMPALA , Uganda, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The practice of refunding a dowry after a dissolved marriage was declared unconstitutional Thursday by Uganda's Supreme Court.

In many African countries a "bride price," or "lobola,"the paying of cash or goods to a prospective husband, is a typical part of the marriage ritual. The court declared the concept of returning the assets to the bride's family, after a divorce, should be banned; while the court called it a suggestion that women were part of a marketplace, and that it hindered a woman's access to divorce, it did not specifically outlaw the "bride price" arrangement.

Campaigners against the practice have argued the "bride price" turns a wife into her husband's property, and since most wives enter marriages with less wealth than their husbands, they become trapped in unhappy marriages, leading to domestic volence. Others regard the price a family pays, often measured in cattle, as a sign that a respectful marriage, with a favorable reaction from the bride's parents, has been entered; they call it a sign of a husband's commitment to care for his wife rather than a commercial transaction.

Six of the seven members of the court noted a direct link between the "bride price" and domestic violence, an element of the case presented by the Ugandan women's rights group Mifumi, was not proven.