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Pakistani girls are traded to settle feuds
Miami Herald ^ | 6/9/08 | SAEED SHAH

Posted on 06/09/2008 3:45:07 PM PDT by Dawnsblood

It began with an errant dog, and it's now culminated with the forced betrothal of 15 little girls, some of them as young as 3, as compensation in a case of tribal feuding in a remote part of Pakistan.

It's thought that around 20 people have died in the bitter quarrel, and the marriage offer of the girls is meant to end the bloodletting.

Under a brutal custom, called Vani, the girls are being traded as settlement of a long-running dispute between two tribes. This case occurred on the border between the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan, but the practice, known as Swara in some areas, isn't uncommon in rural parts of Pakistan.

''The murderer gets away. It is his daughter, his sister, his niece, that pays the price,'' said Samar Minallah, a human rights activist based in Islamabad. ``The girl has to pay the price for the rest of her life.''

Vani usually involves the daughters of illiterate and poor people, who don't have money or other assets to give as compensation. Minallah said that a disturbing feature of such settlements is that they're often ordered by the rich local landowners who adjudicate the cases. Typically, they're educated people and even include members of parliament. A law bans the practice, but police and local officials rarely intervene.

In this instance, Noor Ali, whose three daughters are to be given away, said in an interview that he accepted the verdict. His girls, however, had no choice.

''I think it is right,'' said Ali, speaking by telephone from his village in the Jaffarabad area. ``This is our culture.''

(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: childabuse; diversity; islam; pakistan; swara
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Our civilized friends in the ROP really do know how to settle conflicts don't they?
1 posted on 06/09/2008 3:45:07 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
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To: Dawnsblood

In before obligatory FLDS post.


2 posted on 06/09/2008 3:46:36 PM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG 49) "Checkmate Cruiser")
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To: Dawnsblood

Hey, they did the same thing in Europe - in the 9th Century....


3 posted on 06/09/2008 3:47:28 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: Dawnsblood
If you read the koran correctly, they got ripped off.
4 posted on 06/09/2008 3:49:01 PM PDT by allmost
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To: Dawnsblood
Medieval barbarians living in a modern World.
5 posted on 06/09/2008 3:51:31 PM PDT by Gator101 (Don't tase me, Bro!)
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Dawnsblood

“Peace Child” by Don Richardson
http://books.google.com/books?id=0B88kjg-rzQC&dq=peace+child&pg=PP1&ots=un3YRB5Ivj&sig=slSip85xHxN1qhBV2o5qeHg30bc&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DPeace%2BChild%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail


7 posted on 06/09/2008 3:52:36 PM PDT by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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To: All
I think the British response to the whole culture/tradition argument was the best:

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

In this it is child abuse (rape). I think it is the best answer.

8 posted on 06/09/2008 3:55:01 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
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To: Dawnsblood
Remember campers, all cultures are equal.

How in the hell feminists allying themselves with people like this expect to come out with equal power is beyond me.

9 posted on 06/09/2008 3:55:48 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Beware the fury of the man that cannot find hope or justice.)
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To: Centurion2000
How in the hell feminists allying themselves with people like this expect to come out with equal power is beyond me.

They don't think it out that far. All they know is that the muzzies hate Western Civilization and The Untied States in particular, and so do they.

10 posted on 06/09/2008 4:00:39 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Given such dismal choices, I guess I'll vote for the old guy.)
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To: Dawnsblood

Celebrate Diversity


11 posted on 06/09/2008 4:01:02 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Given such dismal choices, I guess I'll vote for the old guy.)
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To: Dawnsblood
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural.

12 posted on 06/09/2008 4:01:53 PM PDT by Natural Law
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To: Dawnsblood; neodad

Honestly, it probably makes no difference at all to the girls whether they get “traded” by order of a “jirga” or not. Either way, they’re going to be forced to marry whoever the male who has authority over them orders them to marry. They’re bought and sold like livestock, even when there’s no “conflict resolution” involved. There’s no reason to think they’ll be more miserable with whatever husband the jirga orders them handed over to, than with whatever husband their father would otherwise have handed them over to.

And yes, neodad, it’s quite the same as the Warren Jeffs-era FLDS. Only difference is that the FLDS have defenders here on FR.


13 posted on 06/09/2008 4:05:39 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GovernmentShrinker
There is one small difference here Gov. If they can get away, the authorities are much more likely to give a d@mn. There they could care less :(
14 posted on 06/09/2008 4:09:04 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
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To: Dawnsblood

I hope these animals are really going to like hell.


15 posted on 06/09/2008 4:17:18 PM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: Jeff Chandler
I do celebrate diversity, I have a 45ACP M1911-A1, a Ruger Blackhawk 45 Long Colt, 9mm semi's, 357 Mags, 44 Rem mag snubnoise and a variety of other firearms.
16 posted on 06/09/2008 4:57:42 PM PDT by Robert357 (D.Rather "Hoist with his own petard!" www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1223916/posts)
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To: Dawnsblood
''I think it is right,'' said Ali, speaking by telephone from his village in the Jaffarabad area. ``This is our culture.''

I don't think your behavior rises to a level that can be called 'culture,' Ali. It fits better in the study of abnormal animal psychology. Like a band of rabid baboons or something.

17 posted on 06/09/2008 6:33:32 PM PDT by TigersEye (Berlin 1936. Olympics for murdering regimes. Beijing 2008.)
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To: TigersEye
Actually it reminds me of the Tudors of England. (and most other European royal families)
18 posted on 06/09/2008 6:35:58 PM PDT by NathanR (Obama: More 'African' than 'American'.)
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To: NathanR

Sickness knows no cultural bounds which just bolsters my contention that ‘culture’ is not an appropriate term for acting like a diseased animal.


19 posted on 06/09/2008 6:41:37 PM PDT by TigersEye (Berlin 1936. Olympics for murdering regimes. Beijing 2008.)
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To: Dawnsblood

Tell me again why these people are not barbarians.?


20 posted on 06/09/2008 7:11:30 PM PDT by jjr153 (Never Forget 9/11)
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