back to article Angry Brides lob stilettos in dowry shakedown takedown

Indian matchmaking service Shaadi.com has launched a new game based on the immensely popular Angry Birds that aims to highlight the unfair and illegal practice of demanding dowries in South Asian countries. Angry Brides is hosted on Shaadi.com's Facebook pages, and features a red-clad eight-armed woman, presumably styled on …

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  1. ratfox
    Go

    Good, good

    The dowry practice is especially nonsensical now that eligible brides are becoming scarce, what with the skewed gender ratio in births and whatnot.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I totally

    Agree that women are not tradable asset's

    still in the UK female foetus's are aborted since the sexing of them is allowed on the NHS again

    1. Mr Young
      Happy

      Ok - I'll bite - no idea really!

      How many births occur in the uk and how many decide to terminate because of the sex of baby? Tiny minds need facts and figures thank you

      1. Trygve Henriksen

        Happens in Norway, too

        A recent study showed a birthrate of 69(!) female children born for every 100 male children in families with indian background.

        (It's possible that was for 'first child in the family' and that the numbers for second or third child was slightly better)

        Here it's not allowed to sex a foetus before week 12, unless there's a reason to fear 'gender related complications', and abortions aren't allowed after week 12.

        Of course, there's nothing stopping them from taking a vacation in India where the rules and practices are slightly different...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Actually

          Officially, sex selection is banned in India too.

          Unofficially, like a lot of other things in India it is simply a matter of what 's in your wallet.

        2. mhenriday

          Link ?

          Trygve, can you provide a link to the study you mention ? I've attempted to find statistics regarding the gender of aborted foetus here in Sweden (where abortion is allowed up to gestation week 22), but without success....

          Henri

          1. Trygve Henriksen

            Ooops... the number wasn't 69, but 65...

            http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2919442/?tool=pubmed

  3. DragonKin37
    Thumb Up

    Good Job

    Why such a backwards system of treating women is allowed in this day and age is beyond me. It's good to hear that the more moderate women in India are making a stand. I hope the goes same other countries I.E Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and even in the US and UK (belive it or not ) Without the harsh repercussions.

    1. Ben Tasker

      Agreed

      But the article did make me wonder. Is the tradition of the Bride's father (in the UK) paying for the wedding a sort of evolution of the concept of a dowry?

      Good to hear they are taking a stand against it though

    2. Graham Marsden

      @DragonKin37

      "Why such a backwards system of treating women is allowed in this day and age is beyond me"

      Usually such things persist due to lack of education where tradition ("well, that's we the way we've always done it!") trumps the law, especially where the "elders" make the decisions.

      Such things can and do change, but it can take a couple of generations for it to happen.

      1. DragonKin37

        @Graham

        I agree it can take a couple of generations, but some of your stricter govements / theocracies especially dont like change. And all of the people not just the women suffer tremendously.

        I do hope for change just sometimes it doesnt come soon enough.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        " lack of education where tradition ("well, that's we the way we've always done it!") trumps the law, especially where the "elders" make the decisions"

        Which is the reason I dont believe anything the English say either. Stupid traditions exist in the UK too.

        I learned very early on to not listen to anything the English say. Especially those who choose to attend "Social clubs", Dads and Grandma's. This is where you will find the most dangerous rubbish being spouted.

  4. Graham Bartlett

    @Trygve Henriksen

    FWIW, I don't really care if they abort foetuses (foeti?). Better to abort something which is not (yet) a human being, than to treat a human being badly. As the saying goes, the allegedly-"pro-life" lobby stop caring about you once you're born.

    Where it gets fun is further down the line. Have as many sons as you like, you'll need a woman to give you grandchildren. And when there's more men looking for a wife than there are women, it becomes a seller's market (if you'll pardon the expression). It's already happening in China.

    1. perlcat
      FAIL

      I agree that

      the problem will solve itself.

      When females become scarce, then either the males need to change their attitude, or get on with being single. (That, or start a war. Sadly, homo sapiens sapiens isn't always so sapient a species after all.)

      However, "As the saying goes, the allegedly-"pro-life" lobby stop caring about you once you're born."?

      Huh? Then the 10% of my income that goes to the homeless and the needy is spent in an uncaring manner? How's that work? How much are *you* giving to the needy beyond what goes into your taxes? Put your money where your mouth is. These are real problems that can be solved, and making it into a pissing match doesn't help.

  5. defiler
    Joke

    I didn't get a dowry

    Now even a goat. Now I have to cut my own bloody grass.

  6. Velv
    Flame

    Its always interesting to hear the commentards ripping other cultures apart just because they are inferior to ours. I bet those other cultures look at ours and think it is inferior for other reasons...

    FOR THE RECORD: I'm not in favour of abuse of anyone, anywhere, for any reason. HOWEVER, if we are going to enforce our values on other people, we should expect an adverse reaction. games like this are good at EDUCATING. We need more of this instead of simply telling people they are wrong.

    /flame suit on - if you down vote, you don't get it, do you

  7. Trollslayer
    Thumb Up

    To Velve

    You have made the point - Shaadi are doing something to change the cultre and should be applauded for it.

  8. Irony Deficient

    foetal attraction

    Graham Bartlett, the plural of “foetus” (in Latin) is “foetus” (for both the nominative and accusative cases), should you choose to clone the Latin declension into English.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When I married...

    When I married my (Chinese) wife, *I* had to pay a dowry to *her* family. Seems its the other way round out there (and they have a similar male/female imbalance as in India due to selective abortions). Apparently, I got her for a bargain price too (but the in-laws could still afford to buy a flash new car from the proceeds after the wedding).

    Would it have been better to marry an Indian girl and start married life with a few more $ in the pocket? :)

    1. miknik
      FAIL

      Would it have been better to marry an Indian girl and...?

      Nah.

      It would have been better to say to her parents "Get fucked. I love your daughter, I'm going to be true to her and treat her properly and dedicate myself to her 100% and if you can't accept that without a financial incentive then you are nothing more than a pimp who considers their daughter as a whore" and taken your money and spent it on your family home/children/life together.

      Just sayin'

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Spot on!

        I love how these uber religious countries look down their noses at the UK.

        We don't whore off members of our own family.

        So much for their Honour! What honour? They have none.

        1. TimNevins
          Stop

          Oh Really?

          "We don't whore off members of our own family."

          Makes you wonder where the expression "Give away the bride" came from.

        2. perlcat
          FAIL

          re: "We don't whore off members of our own family."

          Huh?

          The dowry is a guarantee of financial stability.

          Doesn't matter if it is the bride's, the groom's, or the parents' responsibility to pay or set funds by -- or even if it is a guarantee enforced in divorce proceedings as we all too often do it in the West -- what you are looking at is a form of social insurance, and slandering that which you do not understand reflects poorly on yourself. It may be abused in this circumstance, but it certainly can be used as a fantastic tool if not perverted by greed.

          We in the West could do a lot better about guaranteeing that young marriages are financially stable and the children are provided for *before* the divorce. We have no room to judge.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Er, why is a shortage of women a bad thing?

    Back in the day, there were 500 nerds on the internet and one woman.

    Now all the dating sites have a heavy surplus of women, and they're all babbling bunny-boilers and/or have bulging psycho eyes (at least if you believe eHarmony, Match.com, etc.'s own ads).

    Once upon a time, being single involved sitting back and relaxing. Now it means running screaming away from codependents.

    1. perlcat
      Facepalm

      Don't forget

      the "duck lips". There is no mind bleach that can remove that abomination from the psyche once seen.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      A heavy surplus

      Or, as a mate said, "If I wanted to see that many elephants I'd go to Africa."

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "dating sites have a heavy surplus of women"

      Emphasis on the "heavy".

  11. Rick Brasche

    backward traditions?

    so can we do something about me having to donate a few months' salary to DeBeers in order to get married in America? Not to mention the obscene cost of *flowers* of all things? :P

    Traditions should not be considered "backwards" unless they are as Law. Then it's a backwards LAW that needs to be addressed.

    If everyone involved is happy with a tradition, then it's good. If one isn't, then deal with it by not following tradition. If there is no third party forcing that tradition down your throat, then any disagreement should be addressed as part of the arrangement. If you can't agree on something like this, you're not gonna get by being married either.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    These brides need iAngry app for iPhones and iPods!! Lol!!

    iAngry -- the new app on the apple app store lets you make fun and swear anyone you hate or anyone who made you angry!!

    It is very well suited for the above mentioned scenario...haha..iAngry!!

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