It was like that in India too. Some social critics and authors back in late 19th and early 20th century changed that practice. Dowry started as a pocket-money f

It was like that in India too. Some social critics and authors back in late 19th and early 20th century changed that practice. Dowry started as a pocket-money for the girl, when she leaves her parent's house to go with her husband, because woman is "their" property now. Parents worried about her daughter's well-being there, would do that in consolation that it might help her, should things go south. That generousness was "expected" as time rolled on.