(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 15 domestic violence.45 This social attitude compromises the woman’s right to make independent decisions and to exercise control over her sexuality and her reproductive capacity. After a critical study of that institution, feminist literature is unanimous that dowry or bride price is oppressive because it positions women in an oppressive institution (dowry/bride price) and is an enabler of women’s vulnerability to abuse.46 A significant negative effect of bride price is that it entrenches the inequality between men and women. Even in the context of marriage, some women enter into it as an unequal and dependent partner who is assumed to be physically weak. Another negative effect of bride price is that in some cases it reduces the woman in the eyes of the man to an object. This objectification of women predisposes them to violence by men, including killing. This is especially so when women are objectified as ‘sex pets’ in pornographic and prostitution settings, as sex slaves, or as subjects of human trafficking. However, it has been argued that claims of increase vulnerability because of the payment of bride price have not always been substantiated by research47 and that there is no necessary correlation between domestic violence and bride price.48 3.3 Inadequate legal, social, political, and economic protection To a large extent, statutory and customary law inhibit women’s access to certain essential resources and to public office. It also nurtures in some ways the fertile ground for social attitudes and behaviours that are oppressive to women in many settings. Land in Africa continues to be an important resource upon which the State’s agricultural and subsistence-based economy depends. But it is difficult for women in some countries, particularly under customary land law tenure systems, to access land in their own right. In Swaziland, for example, a woman can access land use only through a male relative. This is not only a major contributing factor to poverty,49 especially among rural women, it also increases women’s vulnerability to violence and deprivation. Lack of control over resources by women generates a culture of economic dependence on men. This situation further exposes women to poverty and to risks of fatal assault. 45 T Bennet Customary law in South Africa (2004) 235; E Curran & E Bonthuys ‘Customary law and domestic violence in rural South African communities’ (2005) 21 South African Journal on Human Rights 607 617. 46 MR Cutrufelli Women of Africa: roots of oppression (1983); M Hay & S Stichter (eds) African women south of the Sahara (1984); Okin (n 33 above). 47 Bonthuys & Albertyn (n 25 above) 176. 48 L Mbatha The content and implementation of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120, 1998: a social and legal analysis (unpublished LLM dissertation: Wits University 2006) paragraph 3.5.2 cited in Bonthuys & Albertyn (n 25 above) 176. 49 JC Mubangizi ‘An African perspective on some gender-related cultural practices that violate human rights and perpetuate women’s poverty’ (2016) 47 Journal of Social Sciences 68-78.