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April 12, 2006
Pakistan: Muslim Council Orders Unborn Girls To Be Married Off
We reported in November that in Pakistan, it has been a traditional practice amongst some Muslim village courts (jirgas) for daughters to be given away in marriage as part of a compensation package. The custom is called vani.
We described how five young women had been promised in marriage to young men from a different family, as compensation for one of the girl's male relatives shooting a man. The fatwa had declared them as brides to illiterate strangers when the girls were aged from six to thirteen years old. When the girls were older, and declared they did not wish be married off, another jirga was held in the village in the Punjab, which said it was allowed to either rape, abduct or murder the girls.
As we reported last week, when in 2004 a three-year old girl was pledged in marriage to a sixty year old man, a national outcry ensued, condemning the custom of vani. As a consequence, President Musharraf pushed for a law which entered the statute books in late 2004, outlawing the customs of vani and also honour-killings. These came into effect at the start of last year.
Now, however, a fresh case of vani has come to light, and the girls who were promised in marriage were not even been born when the order was made.
The Pakistan Daily Times reports that a Muslim council in Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province made a fatwa eight years ago. Three cousins, Abdul Karim, Noor Bakhsh and Faqeer Muhammad , had gunned down a man called Hussain Bakhsh. A federal court had ruled that Noor Bakhsh should serve a life sentence, but had released the two other men due to insufficient proof of their guilt.
Karim and Muhammad were released, but an Islamic cleric, Hamid Khan Zanglani who was a nazim (imam) at Fort Munro, held a jirga, assisted by two other elders. The jirga declared that the two men should pay compensation. This amounted to 3.5 million rupees ($48,380 US) in cash, property worth 5.5 million rupees ($91,730 US) and six girls.
According to the fatwa, the girls would be girls born in the house of Imam Bakhsh, father of Noor Bakhsh, Riaz Muhammad, Jan Muhammad, Abdul Karim and Ali Haider. These girls would then be given to the family of the murdered man.
Last Friday (7 April), another jirga was held by Hamid Zanglani, Ahmad Ali, Aslam Qaimani and others, which decided that the amount of compensation should be reduced from six girls to four.
Hamid Zanglani, the imam, declared that he had never held a jirga or deciding to give away girls who had yet to be born. He claimed he was being defamed. Police are investigating.
In Islam women are regarded as being legally less than a man in issues of marriage. When they can be promised in marriage before they are even born, it shows that in Muslim villages in Pakistan, they are merely chattels, with no rights to choose their own destinies.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 12, 2006 12:06 AM
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