Angry Brides

FACEBOOK GAME HIGHLIGHTS DOWRY ILLS
Launched by Indian matrimonial website
CBC News Jan 17, 2012

(Image from the Deccan Chronicle)

An Indian matrimony site is highlighting the issue of dowries in South Asian culture with a new Facebook game.

Shaadi.com launched Angry Brides as a takeoff of the popular Angry Birds online game but instead of hurling birds in cyber space, it involves throwing objects, such as pans, hairbrushes and shoes at grooms who are supposedly demanding a dowry. As players hit the target they score points to add to their “anti-dowry fund.”

“The Angry Brides game is our way of throwing a spotlight on the nuisance of the dowry,” Shaadi.com vice president Ram Bhamidi wrote on the website’s Facebook page.

Both men and women are playing the game since it launched last week, with more than 270,000 “likes” on Facebook, Bhamidi wrote.

Dowries — typically large sums of money, cars, appliances or gold jewelry given to a groom by the bride’s family — were outlawed in 1961 in India, but the practice continues in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, particularly in rural areas.

The tradition sometimes spurs violence against a bride if the groom's family feels the dowry is not lucrative enough and demands more, according to Shaadi.com. The website says there is a dowry-related death every four hours in India.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/01/17/tech-shaadi-facebook-dowry.html