Burma Human Rights Network’s report: “We also have dreams” gifts. If I am not able to give an iron box with some sets of clothes for my to be son-in-law, I can’t get my daughters married. People with enough money are giving household items including furniture, cupboards, and plunk¹². Since I don’t have that much money, my daughters are staying unmarried. Only girls whose parents can afford to pay a dowry are getting married. When parents can’t afford to pay for their daughters’ dowry, girls end up getting older without getting married.” The pressure on a refugee community to find money to ensure their daughters can get married is overwhelming for many who lost everything when they fled Burma. Some refugees listed the dowry system as something they wanted to see reformed in the refugee camps. Though dowry is a regional issue, rather than a religious one, the topic is still sensitive for many. As such, there is no significant momentum to address the issues this system imposes on women and girls, or work to change it. The same woman told BHRN, “If someone comes with a marriage proposal for one of my daughters, I can’t afford the expense of the wedding. Dowry is demanded for the wedding. I have three mature daughters in my family. One of them has hit puberty after arriving here from Myanmar. We are in a difficult situation.” This system values individual women according to the income of their families. This is especially harsh on refugee families and creates an environment where daughters are seen as a burden. Little regard is given to these women’s independence and worth. Similarly to how traffickers prey on these women and girls’ desperation, some men have been accused of exploiting this situation to marry multiple women or girls. A 25-year-old woman told BHRN, “Yes, it’s very difficult for us. As we have not been repatriated to Myanmar and have been living here for years, there are households in our community with four or five young girls, and their parents can’t manage to get them married and they are having many problems. They have to give gifts (dowry) for their weddings or the girls will get old without getting married. Married men are becoming polygamists and use their power and money to marry young girls.” In this situation, men with money use their power to convince poor families to marry off their women and girls as additional wives. At the core of this, women are coerced into accepting polygamy because they are financially dependent and not able to make autonomous and free decisions. If it wasn’t for the dowry system, many of these women would likely not have entered such an arrangement because they would have had far more options available to them. 12 - Meaning unclear www.bhrn.org.uk 35