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April 13, 2006

Pakistan: Muslim Woman Sues Over "Vani" Marriage

As we described in November, earlier this month and only yesterday, the custom of vani is still continuing in Pakistan, despite being declared illegal in late 2004, becoming law in early 2005.

Vani is a custom where, in order to settle a dispute, a man can promise a young female relative to be married to a man he has committed an offense against. The most notorious case of vani happened in 2004, where a three year old girl was promised in marriage to a sixty year old man. Public outrage over this case led to the change in the law, which also meant honor killings would, for the first time, become an offense in Pakistan's bizarre penal code.

We described yesterday how one case of vani involved girls not even born being promised as future brides to male members of one family, after a man was killed. Vani happens primarily in rural areas, where village courts, or jirgas decide the outcome over personal disputes, particularly over issues of family law. President Musharraf has encouraged the settling of family disputes by jirgas, outside of federal jurisdiction.

Today, Pakistan's Daily Times reports that a woman who is now 24 is rebelling against a decision agreed when she was only one year old, when she was promised as a "bride". Naheed Akhtar has filed a police petition against the man scheduled to be her husband, and also against her own father, for "selling" her rights in order to gain a lesser penalty for his own crimes.

The case derives from a crime committed before she was born. In 1960, her father, Muhammad Zaman, together with his brother Sahalat, killed a man over a land dispute, in their home village of Pacca Ghanjera in Mianwali. Muhammad and Sahalat were tried under Section 302 of the Penal Code, and a district and sessions court sentenced them to death.

Due to the bizarre nature of Islamic law, a murderer can avoid a death sentence if compensation is made to the family of the victim, and the family agrees. So in 1982, when Presidant Zia was pushing for more Islamification of the legal system, an intervention was made, and both families came to an agreement.

The terms of the deal meant that three women from Muhammad and Sahalat's family would be offered in marriage to members of the family of their victim, Muhammad Rafique Soi.

Alam Khatoom, the daughter of Sahalat, was married to Ismail, the brother of murdered Rafique Soi. Both marriage "partners" were adult at the time, and went on to have six children until Ismail's death after 2000.

Naheed, the woman now pressing a legal claim, was betrothed to Irfan, grandson of Rafique Soi. Both Irfan and Naheed were only one year old.

Khatoon, who was also one, was promised in marriage to Ahmed Nawaz, also one years old. Nawaz was the nephew of murdered Rafique Soi. The official betrothals, or nikahs of the two "couples" was solemnised by an imam, Maulvi Noor Muhammad.

In the twenty three years since the betrothals were formalised in Muslim nikah ceremonies, neither couple consummated any marriage. When the government officially abolished the custom of vani in 2005, the girls rebelled against the proposals. They had refused to be associated with their grooms.

Naheed filed a petition in a court, against Irfan (her groom), Nawaz (Khatoon's groom) and her own father.

She said they did not accept the nikah, as it had been performed forcibly during their childhood, adding that they had been made scapegoats by their elders for saving their skin. The case would revive old enmity between the families.

What is so bizarre about this situation, is that a man could escape criminal punishment for murder so easily. And all he had to do was to give away his child, and deny her her rights to choose for herself whom she could marry. And yet, under Pakistan's repressive blasphemy laws, introduced by the military dictator General Zia in 1986, a person can receive the death penalty merely for insulting the "prophet" Mohammed.

Pakistan Penal Code, Article 295-C:
Use of derogatory remarks, etc; in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

We show our derogatory views of the paedophile "prophet" every day. Fortunately, none of us live in Pakistan.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 13, 2006 3:27 PM

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