28 Nov 2011

PNG election candidate links bride price with violence against women

11:24 am on 28 November 2011

A Papua New Guinea woman who intends to stand in next year's general election says violence against women is less prevalent in parts of the country where the bride price system doesn't operate.

Daphne Kapao says in the Highlands where she lives men pay high prices for brides and about eight of every 10 women has experienced violence at the hands of her husband or a male family member.

Ms Kapao, who intends to contest her coastal home electorate of Tewai-Siassi, says women tend to accept violent treatment as a form of discipline.

"In the Highlands they pay a lot of money, pigs, to pay for a young girl when they marry her as part of the bride price. So when the young girl is married to the husband she becomes like a property to her husband and so the man feels she is like something that he owns and so he doesn't care."

Daphne Kapao says women in PNG are controlled by the culture and suffer in silence.