Indian Women What a Pity

Silenced by their culture large populations of women in India tolerate abuse and subsequent death because they have provided insufficient dowry. In a culture that is male dominated women are raised to be servants to their husbands often arranged to marry a man that they have never met. Women that are beaten or just unhappy must suppress their feelings to keep their husbands blissful or face shame and be turned away by their own families. Indian women’s household must pay a dowry for the privilege of marrying a man of status. The dowry often consists of money, merchandise, or gold that is displayed when the couple is married. Women are being mistreated for insufficient dowry money because the groom’s family may be greedy and would like more items. If the bride’s family cannot provide more for the in-laws they will kill her so that he may keep the dowry he already had collected and then marries another that may possess more money or status. The original dowry is determined by the perceived value of the husband’s hand in marriage. If the husband is very desirable then he commands a very high dollar figure, if the offer of money is too low then the groom’s family will not accept it because it is an insult. “A woman held a PHD and married a man that was a shopkeeper with less education than she possessed. Her father provided a year’s worth of salary and many gifts. After the couple had been married six months, the in-laws requested a washing machine and other items that the bride’s family could not afford to give. They taunted the bride and eventually she was found hung from a ceiling fan. The groom was never convicted because he told the police she committed suicide, because she did not love him enough. Since the death took place in his home, they had no way of knowing if it was the truth. The woman was cut off from her relatives and had once asked her father to help her because she did not feel safe with her new husband. The father told her that she should give it...