Cultural/Context information for the jury

In South Asia, forced dowry is a practice in which the groom's family coerces the bride's family to pay the groom in material goods. Failure to match this expectation frequently results thousands of brides being victimised through domestic violence and in many cases, even leading to death through murder or suicide. To call dowry-demanding men out, we used one of the most recognised symbols of marriages in the country to disseminate the message: hands decorated with henna. To protest against dowry abuse, we designed posters which were illustrated using real henna ink. We illustrated 500 posters by hand, each defiant upheld palm a unique pattern, which prompted people to use their own palms as a device to communicate our message: “Stop Dowrymongering.”