EDITORIAL: It is an age-old ugly custom common in rural areas of Pakistan where girls, often minor, are given in marriage to men of an aggrieved party much older or unable to find a bride, as compensation for crimes, mostly murders, committed by men and decided by jirgas comprising men. In this feudal culture, women and girls are generally treated as property, and thus can be traded like animals to end hostility. Hearing a petition filed by a concerned citizen a three-member bench of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) has declared the practice of vani or swara - as it is called in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - as un-Islamic, observing that giving away a minor girl to settle disputes is against the injunctions of Islam.
The practice is usually defended in the name of tradition. When needed the concept of 'badl-i-sulah' is also invoked, though it has no relevance to the context. In fact, the consent of the woman/girl to be married is necessary, which is why she is asked three times in the presence of two witnesses if she agrees to be wedded to the man chosen by her family. But vani marriage is not only a sad occasion, girls as young as two or five years of age, even in early teens, are unaware of what it means. There have been several instances wherein on attaining adulthood they have refused to accept the marriage but found it impossible to wrest freedom. And as pointed out by Jurist Consultant at the FSC, in most cases the girl is deprived of her basic rights, hence is subjected to discrimination; also she cannot file legal suit for khula (dissolution of marriage). Unfortunately, it is not only the village elders presiding over jirgas who regard females as lesser beings condemning little girls to a life of servitude in forced unhappy marriages, anti-women prejudices are all pervasive. It may be recalled that former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf had embarrassed himself by making some irresponsible comments about rape victims, drawing censure from rights organisation as well as certain Western leaders. Apparently, it was to impress his foreign detractors that in 2004 he got passed a legislation outlawing vani.
The law on its own has had limited effect because in rural areas the police tend to side with local influential people. Since 2004, only in a handful of cases men have given up their claims to marry female relatives of murderers or those accused of some other wrongdoing. Meanwhile, civil society members have been trying to change things for the better. But political parties, especially the JUI-F and JI, the self-proclaimed guardians of religion-related matters, have remained indifferent about this inhuman practice. Now that the FSC has ruled vani as un-Islamic, they should ensure it is implemented effectively. That though is a rather unrealistic expectation of them.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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