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July 22, 2006
Pakistan: Old Muslim Woman For Sale
The Pakistan Daily Times states the Peshawar High Court in Pakistan has voiced its concern about the custom of selling women to men from other provinces, as purported brides. Peshawar is the provincial capital of North-West Frontier Province.
The court was hearing a bail application from a man, Ihsanullah Khan from the town of Nowshera, who had allegedly sold a 70-year old woman to Haji Mohammad Bakhsh, who lived in Sarghoda district in Punjab province. The old woman was sold for 120,000 rupees (almost $2,000). The man from Sarghoda was convinced he was paying to get a 16 year old bride.
Inshanullah was arrested on May 4. Bakhsh had claimed that he was shown a teenage girl and had been tricked into marrying the 70-year old. Inshanullah had been arrested with two other men. He was granted bail, because the FIR (police case report) had not been filed until seven months after the "marriage", and the woman had not been interrogated by police. The two other men remained in custody.
Chief Justice Tariq Pervez stated that the NWFP government's responsibility to stamp out the practice of selling off women to men from outside the province. He noted that several women who had been forced into such a situation had "moved the court" with their tales. These women had escaped from the men who had bought them, and claimed that their "husbands" had frequently put them to work as prostitutes.
Pervez noted that "brutal fathers, uncles and even brothers" engaged in selling female family members into "marriage". He said: "There are cases where fathers have sold their daughters several times over to criminals for the sake of money."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 22, 2006 2:30 PM
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