WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
India - New Delhi
Despite the fact that child marriages are
illegal under the Pakistani Penal Code, few condemn the practice of
pre-adolescent marriage in a country where the Muslim Family Law states the
minimum age of marriage of a girl should be 16.
By Zofeen T. Ebrahim
© Women's Feature Service
Karachi (Women's Feature Service) - Had
it not been for the timely action of Liaquat Kanrani, a police officer in
village Garhi Hassan Sarki, in Jacobabad, 403 kilometres from the port city of
Karachi, on March 20, seven-year-old Sabira Sarki, would have been married off
to 35-year-old Rahimdad Banglani.
Sarki's mother told reporters that they
had sold their daughter to Banglani for Pakistani Rs 80,000 (US$1=PKR 80.2) to
pay for her husband's illness. The police arrested the groom and the bride's
father, while the cleric and the groom's father have fled. Banglani vowed to
marry Sarki because he had already paid the price.
A similar wedlock took place some 10
years ago, except there was no police intervention. Shahzadi was sold off to
her husband, a 40-year-old widower, when she was not even 11. "Working as
a housemaid from the age of nine, I thought life after marriage would be better
as I'd be rid of my alcoholic father," said Shahzadi, now 21.
She couldn't have been more mistaken.
Since marriage, her life has been one long struggle. Unlettered Sahibzadi
belongs to a remote village in Sanghar district, 300 kilomteres from
It is hard to estimate the exact number
of child marriages in the country, as many nuptials solemnised are unofficial.
However, under the Pakistani Penal Code, such marriages are illegal.
Sahibzadi has no idea that both her
father and her husband have committed an offence. But then that was almost a
decade ago and this must be a dying custom, or so one would've thought.
Sadly that is not the case.
Dr Azra Ahsan, a leading obstetrician
and gynecologist in
Ahsan adds, "She (a child bride)
is more at risk of pregnancy-related complications than an older woman,"
says Ahsan. "Her body is not fully developed, neither are her bones. The
risk of her developing fistula, as a result of prolonged and obstructed labour
is far higher."
Most countries have declared minimum
age of marriage to be 18. The Muslim Family Law states the age of marriage of a
girl to be 16. Condemning this practice of pre-puberty marriage, a researcher
and advocate for safe motherhood, with the Population Reference Bureau, Fariyal
Fikree, says, "It's even worse than marital rape. The sexual rights of [the]
girl-child are grossly violated."
While there are laws in
"Whether it's the rural
conservative society, or urban educated class, discrimination against women
exists and persists. Women are considered as commodity," says Samar
Minallah, heading Islamabad-based Ethnomedia and Development, a
non-governmental organisation.
As a result, adds Minallah, pervasive
practices where women are exchanged to settle family feuds, settle debts, or
just to exchange brides, carry on.
And what if there are no daughters or
sisters to give away?
They buy the woman. In April 2006,
Afsar Ali bought 13-year-old Bibi Jan from a marketplace in Peshawar, capital
of the frontier province, for PKR 53,000 to settle a family dispute because he
did not have a close female relative to give away. Bibi Jan was lucky, some
say, for the recipient family rejected her, claiming that she was mentally
challenged.
In addition, says Minallah, "These
cultural customs enjoy the patronage of those sitting in the parliament, who
only reinforce these customs." According to her, "no amount of laws
in the statute books would make a difference to end medieval practices as
culture dominates state laws."
Standing in the mustard field, the sun
almost blinding her, Sahibzadi picked up the three-year old daughter who was
crying for her attention, and swung her on one hip. "I get up early to do
the housework, then off I go to work in the fields. If I don't, we can't
eat," she says matter of fact, having come to terms with destiny.
"I come back home, finish off the
rest of the chores till sunset. In the night I am available for my addict
husband. He is so stoned he does not even know if I'm tired or unwell, or even
that I'm not in the mood. I just perform mechanically," she narrates how
every day begins and ends.
In another village, Sanghar, Nazeer
Begum, 54, narrates her tale. She was married off at the age of 13, immediately
after her first menstruation cycle. She was married to a man 15 years her
senior. "My parents believed that to marry off daughters just at the onset
of puberty was equivalent to performing Haj (pilgrimage to
For the first year of her marriage she
had to bear the taunts of her mother-in-law for not conceiving. In addition,
she said, "Being the youngest meant I was expected to do a lot of
household chores, including sweeping the house and cooking for 14 family
members."
Dr Ahsan says a young girl married
early may face serious health risks. The immediate causes of maternal death
include hemorrhage (bleeding), hypertension (eclampsia), infection, obstructed
labour and complications of unsafe abortion.
According to UNICEF, the social
consequences include dropping out of school and premature pregnancies, which
can lead to higher maternal and infant mortality. The UN agency also points out
that abuse is common in child marriages.
Fortunately, in Nazeer Begum's home,
history won't repeat itself. Though all four of her children are married, she
ensured that all of them completed their studies. What is more, Begum passed
her Grade 10 board examination in 2006, with the help of her younger daughter.
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