''Angry Brides'' is an online

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

-based

browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on c ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. It was launched by the matchmaking site

Shaadi.com Shaadi.com is an Indian online wedding service founded in 1997. Its core market is India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, but it operates globally, with offices in Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States. Overview Sh ...

to help raise awareness of

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

harassment in India.

Background

In India,

Moneycontrol.com - Jagruti Ke Khilaf
/ref> is the payment in cash or other valuable property given to a bridegroom's family along with the bride. A typical dowry may include cash and jewellery. Requests for, and payment of, dowry were prohibited under the Dowry Prohibition Act (1961) in Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498a of the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...

(IPC), but the practice still continues, illegally. If a demanded payment is not made, the groom's family might harass or even kill the bride, often by setting her clothing on fire. The Indian police report that every year they receive over 2,500 reports of bride-burning.Bride-burning claims hundreds in India: Practice sometimes disguised as suicide or accident
''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

'', 18 August 1996. The

National Crime Records Bureau The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). NCRB is headquartered in New ...

of the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

, reports that there were about 8,172

dowry death Dowry deaths are deaths of married women who are murdered or driven to suicide over disputes about dowry. Dowry deaths are found predominantly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran.. Around 87,000 women were killed around the world last year ...

cases registered in India in 2008.Figures at a Glance

This represents an increase of 14.4% over the 1998 level (7,146).Point No.17, Dowry Deaths
According to Ram Bhamidi, senior vice president of

, the Facebook game was developed to raise awareness of the issue.

Game

The landing page of the game shows an eight-armed woman, clad in red and resembling the powerful female Hindu goddess

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...

. Underneath her is a caption: "A woman will give you strength, care and all the love you need ... NOT dowry!" The game involves throwing various common household items like

frying pan A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab han ...

rolling pin Rolling is a type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an axially symmetric object) and translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the other moves), such that, if ideal conditions exist, the two are in contact ...

broomstick A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...

s, and

stiletto heel A stiletto heel, or just stiletto, is a shoe with a long, thin, high heel. It is named after the stiletto dagger. Stiletto heels may vary in length from 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches) or more if a platform s ...

s. In ''Angry Brides'', players strike target grooms who demand a large dowry. Each hit lowers the amount demanded and if the player manages to bring the dowry to zero, they can proceed to the next level. The dowry-demanding grooms are portrayed as a doctor, an engineer or a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. The dowry demand starts at 1.5 millions (about US$30,000 or GBP18,000) and goes down with each successful hit.

Reaction

The game was originally meant to be played on

, but Shaadi.com announced its intentions of bringing it out on other platforms citing its success. The page got 270,000 fans on Facebook who believed that it would help spread awareness about various social evils.

References

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External links

Angry Brides Website
2012 video games Facebook games Flash games Humanitarian video games Indian games Video games developed in India

Background

Game

Reaction

See also

References

External links