wedding ceremony may not take place. In prevailing cultures in Zimbabwe, at the start of a marriage, the groom’s family negotiates a bride price, or lobola, to the bride’s family. Sometimes this agreement is written, which, if in the possession of the widow, can be used to help prove the marriage. The lobola often includes some combination of cattle and cash. In other contexts, the practice of lobola may give the impression to family members of the husband that they have already paid money to the bride (even though wives do not receive any of the lobola) and therefore widows should not be entitled to inheritance upon the death of a husband.22 In most communities in Zimbabwe, women have traditionally left their own families upon marriage and moved in with their husbands on property shared with or adjacent to their husband’s family. This property is considered to belong to the husband or his family, often not registered in the name of the husband or wife.23 Even though customary marriages should be registered with the government according to the Customary Marriages Act of 1997, Human Rights Watch found many of these marriages are not registered, leaving a widow without a certificate as evidence of the marriage.24 Despite her contribution to the land and property (over 70 percent of women who are employed in Zimbabwe are employed in the agricultural sector), not having a certificate is a disadvantage when attempting to claim inheritance rights.25 According to informed sources in Zimbabwe, until recently, it was common for a widow to be “inherited” by a male relative of her husband, along with the couple’s property. In many cases, this amounted to a forced marriage, as the widow would believe that she had no choice but to marry the relative under customary practice. This form of “wife inheritance” or “widow inheritance” served to keep land and other property within the deceased husband’s family and was meant to protect the widow and surviving children. Zimbabwe Unregistered Customary Law Unions and Putative Marriages. (Harare: Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, 2013). 22 See, Human Rights Watch, Double Standards: Women’s Property Rights Violations in Kenya, vol. 15, no. 5(A), March 2003, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/kenya0303/kenya0303.pdf, p. 22, 27. 23 Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency and ICF International, “Demographic and Health Survey for Zimbabwe 2010-2011,” 2010, https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR254/FR254.pdf (accessed January 11, 2017). 24 Customary Marriages Act, cap. 5:07 of 1997, sec. 8. 25 “Zimbabwe, Percentage distribution of employed population in agricultural sector, by sex,” Minimum Set of Gender Indicators, https://genderstats.un.org/#/countries (accessed November 16, 2016). 15 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JANUARY 2017