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Forced Marriages Outrage Pakistanis
Four men convicted of murder agreed to "Want some candy, little girl?" I think tradition has it that the girl has to be finished burping milk before she can be married... ''It is quite common in the area to marry daughters to the family of someone you wrong. But usually the ages of the girl and the man are taken into consideration,'' said Mohammed Asad Malik, son of a former governor of Punjab province, where their village, Musakhen, is located. "Wull, shore. It don't hurt nothin', 'cept maybe the girlies. An' they're mostly weened, so they're old enough..." The four men, who came from the same family, were convicted and sentenced to hang for the 1988 murder of two men from another family in Musakhen, 140 miles southwest of Islamabad. Both families share the same last name, Khan. While the death sentences were handed down by a Pakistani court, the country's Islamic law stipulates the victim's family can ask for clemency. Yup. There's no justice like Islamic justice... In addition to the girls, the family of the two murdered men received ''blood money'' worth $130,000, Malik said. We used to call it wehrgeld, long enough ago that the word was English. It fell out of use when the English discovered laws... The 5-year-old was not to have been married until she was older, according to Malik and other villagers. Yeah. Who wants a wife without a bosom? She'd have to wait until she was at least ten... Another of the proposed matches coupled an 18-year-old woman with an 80-year-old man. "Hubba hubba!" he cackled, wavering on his cane. "C'mere, toots!" For two of the girls, the marriages were halted just in time. A 14-year-old and a 15-year-old had already finished the wedding ceremonies and were about to be sent to the homes of their husbands-to-be, aged 77 and 55 respectively, when village elders intervened. Malik said both men already had wives, as is allowed under Islamic law. One even had children older than his prospective bride. At 77 he probably has grandchildren older than his prospective bride... Not going to the husbands' homes meant the marriages could still be dissolved without stigmatizing the teenagers, Malik said. But not to worry. They'll find some other method of stigmatizing them... Mohammed Babar, assistant superintendent of the jail where the convicted men are held, said no execution date had been set. Other officials said the four could still be spared the gallows if the families work out another, less controversial, arrangement for settling the blood debt. Maybe they can trade some other sort of cattle... While this case drew attention because it was so extreme, experts said many similar deals involving forced marriages take place every year. Behind these settlements, they said, is a tradition in rural areas to rely on local leaders to resolve disputes according to local customs. Government-run courts, with their greater protection of individual rights, are often avoided as cumbersome and expensive. While not illegal, these traditional forms of mediation often end up showing little regard for the rights of women, say experts. In Pakistan? Women? Rights? When did that happen? ''Women continue to be seen as possessions of men, as something that can be just given away, like cattle or gold,'' said Kamila Hyat, joint director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a government rights monitor. "Moo for me, Baby!" The arranged-marriage deal ''appears to have been reached in violation of the law of the land and against the norms of the civilized world,'' Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad said in a statement Wednesday. And what, pray tell, do the norms of the civilized world have to do with Pakistan? Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-07-25 |
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