Bid to outlaw bride price in Zimbabwe

A female lawyer in Zimbabwe has mounted a legal challenge to abolish lobola, or the bride price, saying it is an outdated practice which reduces women to mere “properties”, the state-run Herald newspaper reports.

Priccilar Vengesai believes that if the custom is maintained, the families of both the bride and groom should pay lobola in the interest of gender equality, the newspaper adds.

She has filed papers in Zimbabwe’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, asking it to hear her case on the grounds that the practice violates her rights as a citizen.

The newspaper quotes Ms Vengesai as saying that she wants to re-marry, and does not want her experience in a previous marriage to be repeated

Source: BBC