"Misogyny is a central part of sexist prejudice and ideology and, as such, is an important basis for the oppression of females in male-dominated societies. Misogyny is manifested in many different ways, from jokes to pornography to violence to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel toward their own bodies." - Allan Johnson

Bridepricecheck is a web app that assigns virtual monetary value (in Naira) to women in an attempt to calculate their bride price based on factors such as their level of education, skin colour, nationality, weight, beauty, physical features, spoken accents, country of residence, employment status etc.

A bride price is a practice popular in many Asian and African cultures, which involves the payment of an amount of money, or property, or wealth by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman as a symbolic 'token' upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. It is a cultural heritage that has always been used as a gesture of good faith and support, and a way for the groom to demonstrate his ability to maintain the bride in marriage. The amount paid as bride price can vary from a small token to a great sum. In recent times however, there have been concerns about the effect that payment of bride price has on gender equality, early or forced marriage, as well as domestic violence towards women. 

The Bridepricecheck app promotes racism, sexism, discrimination against women. By assigning a price tag it devalues the true worth of a woman; it promotes the ideology that women are the lesser gender, and are expected to please men. The app assigns a lesser monetary value for having darker skin and a greater value for being mixed-race/ lighter. The app assigns greater value for being tall, having no tribal marks, and deducts value for having a particular accent. It even goes as far as limiting the level of ambition and education women are expected to have (by deducting monetary value for women who obtain a PhD degree). This is not in anyway different from the mentality that the terrorist group Boko Haram have towards women, and how they have demonstrated this with the kidnapping of over 200 Chibok school girls. The world is still dealing with the actions that ensue from such repressive mentality, and on a daily basis we get reports of rape, violence, oppression, and harassment of women.

Please join me in raising a voice against such a repressive mentality being subtly spread by an app in the name of harmless fun, and to ensure this app is taken down permanently. 

Thank you.