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 ...
You are stupid enough to follow a false prophet who was a notorious pedophile-—This is what happens
I hope you meant to preface that with the word if, or were you really meaning to address that at me?
Not addressed to you at all.... Just a general statement about the loonieness known as Islam
Ty, I soooo understand. Best 2 u :)
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