Pakistan – Forced Marriage “Vani” – Illegal Tradition
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: March 12, 2006
Child
114.(b) Consent to marriage
Forced child marriage tests Pakistan law
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Coming of age They discovered they’d been promised in marriage to their enemies when “When we grew up we came to know that a great injustice had been done “Vani is equal to a murder. If we were to marry those boys, it would be Vani is a tribal custom in which blood feuds are settled with forced The bride spends her life paying for the crime of her male relatives. “She’s just like a slave in their house,” says community activist No one knows how many women suffer this fate in Pakistan, but anecdotal Few resist it. That is why anti-vani campaigners see the Khan sisters of Sultanwala in “When this case appeared, 20 to 30 other people approached us, and they “This is a test case.” Vani brides The story began 14 years ago, with the girls’ uncle, Mohammed Iqbal
He Eventually a tribal council offered to pardon him – in exchange for the “When I refused the people there told me you cannot escape,” he says, It is an ever present fear, as the rival family lives next door. The houses are in compounds surrounded by brick walls, and a road about Mohammed Aslam Khan is the uncle of the man that Mohammed Iqbal killed. His son is betrothed to one of the brides. He is a man with fiery eyes and a shock of windswept white hair and is It is very clear to him who is the guilty party, and what will happen “They have betrayed us, they have insulted our honour,” he says. “According to our culture the girls are already our daughters-in-law. His demand for tribal justice clashes with the law – the government At gunpoint But it is a ban which critics say is not being enforced by the police,
According to the “The girls could come to us,” he says. “If they are being married against their will, if they have any “That is impossible,” counters Mr Khan, “no girl will come to the This is especially so for the Khan sisters. Their father, Jehan Khan Niazi, is their strongest supporter. He says he agreed to the vani at gunpoint, but has moved his daughters “They stand against this because they are educated,” he says. “Illiterate girls cannot understand and express themselves. My Suicide threat Abda and her sisters are indeed armed with a weapon rare for women in
“If we do “We want the authorities to solve our problem, and the media should The sisters do not know whether they will be successful. They do know they would not give in. “If the government does not help us, we will commit suicide,” says “We will burn ourselves alive to protest vani. I know this is The sisters say they have law, religion and family on their side. What they have against them is the weight of tradition, tribe and Much depends on whose justice will prevail. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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