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Court allows girl to dissolve childhood marriage
A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court allowed dissolution of marriage of a girl who had fallen prey to the tribal custom of Swara at the age of six. Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Ijaz Afzal observed that the petitioner had a legal right to exercise her "option of puberty" after coming of age. That means good Muslims can marry 'em at six and diddle 'em until they're twelve or thirteen, but then the girlies have the chance of deciding to change their little minds and move on. That sounds like good, sound Sharia law. It doesn't make any sense, but it sounds like good law. An Islahi Jirga, to settle a family row in 1992, had decided that the petitioner, Ms Shamsul Huda, should be married to Inamul Haq, a boy of the rival group. According to Swara, feuds are settled between rival groups by handing over girls in marriages to the opponents. That way, rather than shooting each other, they can just beat their wives and accomplish the same thing... Advocate Sikander Khan, appearing for Ms Huda, stated that her father had given the rival party an undertaking wherein he accepted to have solemnized her union with Inamul Haq without any dowry. Mr Khan claimed that the union was illegal, as fixation and acceptance of dowry by both husband and wife was mandatory for marriage in Islam. "Mahmud, ah tolt yew to give 'em that thar warshin' machine as boot!" "Ayeshah, that thar thang ain't never worked. An' they don't have no 'lectricity to make it work, neither!" Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-06-13 |
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