Female Notions of Inheritance and Violence Against Women

Student:
Professor:
Course title:
Date:
Female notions of inheritance and Violence against women
Abstract
It would not be an exaggeration to claim that a girl born in a patriarchal society will experience immense discrimination tied in the cultural practices throughout her life. Indeed at every stage in her life, shameful cultural practices will always stare her in the face. These include dowry, Female Genital Mutilation and Honor killings among other senseless humiliating cultural practices. In most parts of the world, females do not inherit from their parents. Females have a notion that it is males who should inherit from their parents. Thus gender based inequality, which is the disparity in the way males and females are treated in the society whereby males are regarded with more dignity, continues to be experienced in the world over. However, in the recent times, women champions have fiercely refused to stay silent in the face of all this utter gender based inequality. Hence channels of addressing all these are being championed.
Dowry, female genital cutting/mutilation, and honor killing
The subject of dowry is one of the prominent female notions of inheritance and violence against women. Dowry contrasts bride price or bride wealth. Whereas bride price or bride wealth involves transfer of wealth from the Grooms side to the family of the bride, dowry involves transfer of parental wealth from Brides side to the Grooms side. Payment of dowry is consisted in Asian countries such as India and Pakistan and it is regarded as a form of inheritance. It is also viewed as a security in case the groom is unable to take care of the bride and the subsequent family. Although payment of dowry is prohibited in many areas, it continues to be practiced. In the recent times, there have been instances of abuse of the dowry payment particularly in India. For example, there have been reports of women burned by their husbands because the dowry paid was considered not to be enough. Such occurrences are often concealed as accidents and are rarely reported as acts of abuse; hence, few official reports of such incidences exist. When such incidences are reported, the judges, most of them being males, do not give the cases the seriousness they deserve. Sometimes the cases are just dismissed. Again, the judges receive bribes and disregard the cases hence the women do not eventually get justice.
Another common notion of violence against women is female genital mutilation (FGM), which is essentially a cultural oriented procedure that involves removing part(s) of the female productive organ for purposes other than medical. Across different cultures, it is carried out by traditional circumcisers who use unhygienic tools and mainly one tool is used to operate on more than one girl. FGM in most societies is considered as a violation of human right, except in societies that continue to practice it. First, it is carried out to girls who are underage and therefore it is a violation of their rights as children. It also violates the right of the women to health. This is because the practice of FGM subjects the health of the women to danger because the sharing of one tool can lead to spread of deadly diseases such a...