In some culture part of the process of a man and woman getting married is the payment of Bride price or in some case dowry. Bride price is when the groom’s family is expected to give money to the Bride’s family while dowry is when the bride’s family have to give money to the groom’s family.I will be concentrating more on Bride-price ad it seems more popular than Dowry. The custom of Bride price has existed longer than I can remember and there is really nothing wrong with it as long as they are legal. However in some family or culture the receiving family see this as a means of recovering the finances spent on daughter while bringing her up , or even as a means of making money off their son in-law, this has lead to greedily demanding more money or goods than is reasonable. As a receiving family making an unreasonable demand will imply that the Bride is just a purchased property, and I have seen instances where this has backfired . A highly unreasonable bride price has made some groom to treat the bride as one of their properties, they do not have any regards for her and take her for granted.
I am not saying that bride price or dowry is bad in itself , when done properly and reasonable it is okay but the demand should not make an intending son inlaw to feel that the only responsibility he has towards his wife and his Inlaws is a financial one. In some family they are on the lookout for a rich suitor so that they can make money off him through the bride price.This is totally wrong and should be discouraged. Meanwhile it is not compulsory to demand for a bride price as there has been families who has given away their daughter without demanding a penny, all they want is that their daughter be happily married, which should be the ultimate goal of every parent.