PAKISTAN
Pakistani girls are traded to settle feuds
Families in Pakistan sometimes force young girls to marry to curb tribal violence.
Posted on Mon, Jun. 09, 2008

BY SAEED SHAH


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- 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.''
There are different versions of how this particular tribal war began -- such enmities are a common feature of rural life in Pakistan -- but a dog was involved. The dog, belonging to the Chakrani tribe, offended the neighboring Qalandari clan.

Depending on whom you believe, the dog either bit a Qalandari or one of their donkeys or, according to some, simply drank from a Qalandari water well. Whichever version is believed, the dog was shot dead by the Qalandaris -- back in 2000. That started the conflict, which escalated into tit-for-tat killings until 20 people had been killed, mostly Qalandaris, including five women.

Akbar Bugti, a tribal grandee from the area, settled the dispute through a traditional meeting known as a jirga, in which each side argues its case. In 2002, Bugti decreed that the Chakranis hand over the girls as they'd killed more people than the Qalandaris had.

That decision, however, wasn't implemented, and the dispute festered. It took until last month for another jirga to be convened, which confirmed Bugti's judgment. It's unclear whether the decision has been enforced, as media attention has frightened the tribesmen.

Ali, the father of three, said recently that the ''dupata'' (scarf) ceremony, where the other tribe comes to claim the girls by laying scarves on their heads, hadn't occurred but would soon. He said his daughters were 3, 6, and 7.

He said that while the girls would become the property of the Qalandaris after the dupata ceremony, they'd live with him until age 18, and then they'd be handed over for marriage. Others doubt that the girls will stay with their family.

On Friday, when he was contacted again, Ali said the hand-over had stalled.

''Some problem occurred,'' Ali said.

An investigation of the affair by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent group, found that the promised girls were between 3 and 11. Indad ullah Khoso, the local coordinator of the rights group for Kashmore, said that no arrests had been made.

''Once the dupata is laid on the girls, they become the personal property of the Qalandaris and they can take them away when they want,'' Khoso said.

The national and provincial government, after being pressed by the media, pledged to take action against those involved in this case, but so far, it seems no one has been punished.

" How do you deal with people like this" ?


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