ManSlippers

Pakistanis Order Betrothal of 2-Year-Old

Mon Feb 21, 2:27 PM ET World - AP Asia

By KHALID TANVEER, Associated Press Writer

MULTAN, Pakistan - A tribal council in Pakistan has ordered the betrothal of a 2-year-old girl to a man 40 years older to punish her uncle for an alleged affair with the man's wife, police said Monday.

The council decreed the girl must marry 42-year-old Mohammed Altaf, her uncle's cousin, when she turns 18, police said.

Altaf, a farmer, divorced his 32-year-old wife over her alleged love affair with his 20-year-old cousin, Mohammed Akmal. Akmal, a bachelor and also a farmer, has no children.

Altaf asked tribal elders in the village of Kacha Chohan, about 215 miles west of the city of Multan in Punjab province, to convene a panchayat, or council, on Feb. 15 to arbitrate and propose a punishment. As punishment, the elders ordered the girl's betrothal and ruled Akmal should also pay a $3,800 fine to the husband.

Village councils in conservative rural regions of Pakistan traditionally rule on local disputes including those involving a family's "honor" purportedly being besmirched by allegations of improper sexual behavior. The councils can dictate harsh — and sometimes illegal — punishments.

In 2002, another village council near Multan ordered a woman gang-raped as punishment for her brother's sexual relations with another woman. A court later convicted six men who perpetrated the rape and sentenced them to death. They are appealing the sentences.

Police chief Maqsoodul Hassan said an investigation has been started into the case involving the 2-year-old girl, but they have made no arrests as no one had filed a complaint.

None of the parties to the dispute could be reached for comment Monday.

Rashid Rahman, a lawyer and Multan-based coordinator with the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, condemned the village council's decision.

"These types of panchayats are illegal and nobody has the right to take a decision about a child's life," he said. "This country has its legal system and all decisions should be taken under it."

He said that the betrothal of a minor did not itself break the law, but forcing a woman to marry against her will carried a maximum 14-year jail sentence. Underage marriage is also illegal but is only punishable by a fine.

FantaOrSprite

Freaking nethandrals. I love how men can't even serve their own punishments, they have to take it out on INNOCENT women!

And that is a SICK SICK thing.

CrAZyBeAuTiFuL4

I agree that it's wrong, but I don't think it's because the men can't/don't want to serve their own punishments. I was a litlte confused by the wording of the article, so I don't know if I understood it correctly but I think it might have something to do with a relgious thing. Now I don't even know if these people are Muslim, but...if they are, it says in the Qur'an "a woman for a woman.." and stuff like that. I wish I could find the exact sura and everything, I know I just read it. But yeah, if someone does something to your cousin, you make their cousin pay for it...you get them in the same way they got you kind of thing.

That might have something to do with it? Like I said, I don't know...but that's the first thing that popped into my head when I read the article. And looking at it from that cultural persepective, I can see where they would do that. I'm not trying to justify their actions, but...their culture is completely different than ours here in the US.

FantaOrSprite

It should be the person who DID the crime gets the punishment....I don't agree with that at all. Doing that to a 2 year old child in the name of religion? That is WRONG. And I"m not going to try to be PC and say it is okay.

I understand it's a different culture and all, but gang raping a woman because of something her brother did or whatever? How could any religion say that that is right? If I was practicing a religion that said that I would seriously reconsider, because to me ,(and this is just my opinion) it sounds rather sexist and like men are first class while women are totally inferior.

CrAZyBeAuTiFuL4

Like I said, I could totally be wrong about how this all came about. I don't know for sure this is a religious thing, but that's partly how I took it. Also, not everyone follows that guideline that I mentioned. As my professor explained it, just like in Christianity, there are some people who feel that the ways of the past are the right ways to do things and so they stick to them or try to as much as they can. I agree that it should be the person who did the "wrong" thing who gets the punishement.

Islam really isn't a sexist religion...if anything they protect their women more than a lot of other religions in my opinion. Last semester in my Islam class the professor gave us a really interesting article on how the Christian religion, in the begining, was VERY sexist towards women and how there are places in the Bible that pretty much trash women left and right. I know I printed it out but I'll see if I can find a link to it. And in this case, it happens to be a woman, but the logic behind all of it would go for a man as well. If Man A killed Man B's son...then Man A's son would have to pay also. And yeah, that gets back to the whole thing of "well Man A's son is the innocent one here." Yes, he is and I don't think it's right to punish HIM for it but...yeah.

Again, I wasn't trying to justify the actions taken in Pakistan, I was just trying to shed some cultural light on it.

Duffyboy

I t really is a pity I can't swear on this particular forum. Therefore I can't repeat my opinion.

CrAZyBeAuTiFuL4

Opinions tend to be more respected when you can express them in a mature manner

Duffyboy

Mature events will be treated by me with a mature manner.

Whilst immature events....

CrAZyBeAuTiFuL4

Okay, whatever.

ForeverInLoveWithJus

Thats really gross. How unfair on her, Life just isnt fair.