No Woman’s Worth Should Be Measured in Pigs or Cash.

If you believe a woman’s value can be measured in pigs and cash, then the true purpose of marriage has already been lost.

▪️Yes, we say “it’s culture.”

▪️Yes, we say “it’s the family.”

But let’s be honest. When pigs are counted and money is stacked for a bride price, what we are really saying—without wanting to admit it—is that a woman has been priced, traded, and transferred. Tradition dressed up as transaction.

And once that price is paid, it doesn’t disappear. It hangs on her shoulders:

▪️Every argument becomes “we paid for you.”

▪️Every struggle becomes “remember the bride price.”

▪️Every attempt to leave abuse becomes “bring back the pigs and money.”

That is not respect.

That is not protection.

That is a quiet form of imprisonment.

In Papua New Guinea, people have abused the traditional custom of bride price with the Western influence of money. What was once meant to symbolize respect and connection has been twisted into a financial transaction. This shift is deeply affecting the marriage lives of women, causing many to become prisoners in their own homes because of payments made by their husbands and his family.

Culture was meant to protect people, not trap them. Tradition was meant to honour women, not silence them.

▪️A woman is not livestock.

▪️Marriage is not a purchase.

▪️Love should not come with a receipt.

Some customs made sense in another time, but times have changed. Women are educated, working, contributing, and carrying families forward. Yet we still cling to practices that place them in lifelong debt simply for being married.

It is time to ask hard questions.

It is time to let go of customs that harm more than they help.

It is time to choose dignity over outdated traditions.

Because no amount of pigs or money should ever decide a woman’s freedom, her voice, or her future.