COMBATING DOWRY VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BANGLADESH: A CRITICAL STUDY

Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: In Bangladesh the most important event in a women’s life is marriage which is surrounded by the various financial transactions including primarily the religiously sanctioned dower. Added to the dower, the practice of dowry popularly known as ‘Joutuk’, demands made by the groom’s side to the bride’s side, have in the last few decades become a widespread practice in the society supported neither by state law nor personal laws, but apparently designed to strengthen traditional patriarchal assumptions and with the expansion of capitalist relations that help capital accumulation by men in Bangladesh. The dangerous scenario is that every year a number of women become the victims of violence for non fulfillment of dowry demand, which is caused the threatened to their lives as the law cannot eradicate the menace of dowry due to lack of proper enforcement. This paper is an attempt to indicate the severity of the dowry violence including the analysis of legal strategies to put on curb the dowry violence in Bangladesh