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June 30, 2006
Pakistan: 60-Year Old Muslim's Child Bride, Aged Nine, Worth One Bag Of Rice
We have reported extensively on cases of vani marriage in Pakistan, where girls, sometimes as young as one years old, and even girls not yet born, are given away in marriage as an act of compensation.
A judge on Tuesday said that vani marriage appeared to be spreading across the whole country. Vani became illegal at the start of 2005, along with honour killing. But even though we have recounted numerous cases of vani, which as a crime can earn a maximum sentence of 10 years' jail, there has never been a single conviction for this disgusting practice.
Five small girls in Jacobabad district in Sindh province, in the southeast of Pakistan, were recently given away in marriage to settle a dispute which happened when male relatives had been involved in a killing nine years ago, before the girls were even born.
Two other girls were recently given away in marriage because their father had not fulfilled his payments on some buffaloes.
Now, a case has emerged of a nine-year old girl from Jacobabad in Sindh province, who was deemed to be of the same value as a bag of rice. The girl, called Wahida, was given away in vani marriage by her father, Jan Mohammad. Four days ago, she became married to Abdul Sattar, a man aged sixty.
The news, reported in Pakistan's Daily Times, says that Wahida's father had agreed to act as a guarantor for a friend, who bought a 440 kilogram (880 pound) bag of rice on credit. The rice was worth 50,000 rupees ($830). When the money was not paid, the rice trader, Bakhshan Khan Pahore, demanded that Jan Mohammad give away his nine year old daughter in marriage to the trader's 60-year old elder brother, Abdul Sattar.
Jan Mohammed, Wahida's father, and the sixty year old paedophile Abdul Sattar, have been arrested by Jacobabad district police, and Wahida has been rescued from Sattar's house. Currently, she has been sent off to be medically examined. After tests have been carried out, she will be places in a care home, until a court can ascertain the best place for her to live.
According to Pakistan's laws on marriage, a girl can be married at the age of fourteen, and a boy can be married at the age of sixteen. This discrepancy in ages is in direct contradiction of Pakistan's Constitution, Article 25, which guarantees equal rights for all irrespective of sex, race and creed. The fact that compensation marriages of girl children are so frequent, with no-one yet convicted, is another sign that the police and judiciary do not give a stuff about either the constitution or even the law.
Jan Mohammed and the sixty-year old pervert will be appearing in court tomorrow. At the current conviction rate, do not expect to hear of anyone getting punished.
The version of the story as given by Dawn states that the old man who married the girl is called Abdul Sattar Pahore, and he is not aged sixty, but is SEVENTY. Currently, the old man is said to be absconding. The father is in custody and the Muslim cleric who solemnised the marriage on June 27, Maulvi Nek Mohammad, is currently being interrogated by police.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 30, 2006 9:49 PM
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