“We are talking about a regime of some other Greece”, repeats Antonis Bakaoukas in BIMA from the public relations office of the Municipality of Megara.
Dowry for ten poor girls, citizens of Megara, according to the wish of Athanasios Styl. Gini. And the institution of dowry may have been abolished by the Papandreou government with Law 1329/83, the Municipality of Megareo is obliged to continue the outdated tradition.
Dowry to ten needy girls from the Municipality of Megareo
The break with the past took place in 1983 and yet the Municipality of Megareo “must” maintain the remainder of the dowry. As Mr. Bakaoukas explains, “in 1963 fellow citizen Athanasios Styl. Ginis had donated some properties to the Municipality of Megareo, which after a series of procedures were sold and with this money and the interest through the Ginis Foundation, it had been done since before endowment of needy women aged 15-40 and with an annual income of up to 5,712 euros, according to the wishes of the testator».
At the time of drachmas, the dowry given to needy girls amounted to 60,000, with the amount now reaching 500 euros. The endowment money is intended exclusively for the endowment of the girls.
Is the restoration of the dowry sought? In no case is this what the municipal authority of Megara wants to do. Proof that there have been repeated attempts to change the legal status of the Gini Foundationwhose chairman is appointed by the respective mayor.
“The last attempt was made in 2017 with a request to change the purpose of the Gini Foundation and instead of a dowry to give financial support to students (regardless of gender) to continue their studies. By decision of the Tripartite Court of Appeal of Athens, which was issued on March 10, 2020, the request was rejected.
The reasoning behind the decision was as follows: the request for a change of purpose is rejected as inadmissible due to the lack of jurisdiction of this court”, says Antonis Bakaoukas in BIMA and adds “until the endowment amount is exhausted the dowry will be given. Typically, for legal reasons, we call it a dowry. It is essentially a small marriage allowance.’
The participation applications of those interested for 2023 were submitted to the Mayor’s Office – accompanied by the necessary supporting documents – from 7/11/2023 to 7/12/2023.
The interest exists but is particularly limited compared to past times. The sum of 500 euros was awarded to three women who met the conditions of family and financial status and locality.
The dowries in public view
The loaded cart traveled around the village for two, maybe three, days. Women and children came out to the streets to admire the bride’s dowries, while her father in the coffee shop raved about what he managed to give his future son-in-law.
The trade deal was closed. The female to be “sold” could go from her father’s to her husband’s as long as the two families did not break up over the dowry. The bride’s side had to give, the groom’s side had to take.
Silver, gold, plates, glasses, sheets, blankets, cash, houses, trees, animals. Everything was a dowry. And the older she was, the more well-married the girl would end up. From her birth, her parents tried to collect her dowry so that it would not be left on the shelf.
Those that “left” ungerminated were fingered. It is a great shame for the family not to be able to endow them as the bridegroom who would marry them deserved.
A publication of the time read: “Dowry, the big hoarse one who drowns parents and girls who are about to get married. Should it be abolished? No, answer the young people, because the marriage must be done with a common contribution. Yes, the young women answer, because dowry degrades men.”
“Dowry, the biggest nightmare of families with girls”
The institution of the dowry has its roots in antiquity, with this practice being maintained during the Byzantine and Ottoman years as well as after the creation of the modern Greek state.
An institution forged over centuries and enshrined as a synthetic element of the Greek family. The purpose of the dowry, in its early phase, was the financial security of the women and their contribution to the new family they would create.
The years passed and with them the original purpose faded. The wife’s property passed to the husband who was also her sole administrator.
In the second half of the 20th century, the issue of dowry turns into a serious social problem due to the financial poverty of many families, a result of the Occupation and the Civil War. Girls cannot come into marriage if they did not have a dowry.
Seventeen communities of Roumeli declare war on dowry. With a joint telegram of protest to Queen Frederika, they talk about “the dowry that has become the biggest nightmare of families with girls”.
In 1734, Patriarch Neophytos openly opposes the custom of dowry and in his letter to the then metropolitan of Athens, he states: “The gift replaces the soul’s kindness, virtue, education and morals the beauty, science and prudence, strength, health, beauty, love. The prize is the bane of society.”
“How do I judge the institution of dowry? I would say that I find him unsympathetic”, declared in 1976 on the ERT program “Research” the professor of Family Law at the Athens Law School, Georgios Koumantos.
“The institution has its roots in the depths of the centuries, in the most ancient Roman law and in the ancient Greek law which is found with its current features and is explained by the inferior position that the woman had in relation to the man. In ancient Roman law a woman was never self-governing, she would either belong to her father or her husband.
This shows in which social contexts the institution of dowry enters. (…) If one judges him from the woman’s point of view, it seems like compensation that he has to pay because he imposes on someone else her presence and maintenance. From the man’s point of view, the dowry looks like a price that he collects in order to be sold,” Koumandos commented.
The final abolition of the dowry by Andreas Papandreou
The first steps towards the abolition of dowry were made in July 1978 when a special legislative commission was established under the emeritus professor of Law of Athens A. Gazis. The purpose of the committee was to abolish the laws 1403-1404 of the Civil Law that related to the dowry and opposed the principles of equal rights of the two sexes of the Family Law of the Constitution.
The deadline for the final (and irreversible) abolition of the anachronistic institution of the dowry is February 18, 1983.
For the first time in the history of the modern Greek state, women are equal to men in a legal context. The woman ceases to be a burden that someone else will carry on his shoulders, and for this she should be amply compensated.
Two years after assuming power, Andreas Papandreou with law 1329/83 institutionalized civil marriage and strengthened gender equality. Until then, article 1389 AK described that “the man is the head of the family and decides on everything concerning conjugal life”.
With the new law (article 1387) it is explicitly stated that the spouses decide jointly on every issue of married life and that each must contribute jointly, according to his strengths, to family needs.
Undoubtedly, this particular legislative initiative, a consequence of the fundamental change in Family Law, is one of the most important political choices of the first PASoK government and of Andreas Papandreou personally.
“We radically changed the Family Law which kept the institution of the family anachronistic and devalued the Greek woman” wrote the PASoK in its report a little later.
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