Congo-Kinshasa: Rape Used to Lower Dowry Price in Refugee Camps

31 August 2001
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

A recent mission conducted by Refugees International (RI) has highlighted the plight of Congolese women living in refugee camps, where rape is used by men to drive down the dowry price of prospective brides. RI noted that Congolese tradition is such that "when a man wants to marry a woman, he must first approach her family and work out a dowry price - often extremely expensive, and worth several year's savings, necessitating contributions from the man's family to come up with the total amount." H

owever, in refugee camps where men have no job with which to earn dowry money, paying a dowry poses a serious challenge. "As a result," observed RI, "rapes of young women have increased, and men sometimes rape women they want to marry in order to reduce the dowry price." Whereas a bride's parents typically receive US $1,000, "a bride who has been raped is worth no more than US $50."

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