a long-running blood feud in a remote corner of western Baluchistan province has been resolved by the handing over of 15 girls, aged between three and 10, for marriage.
between 3 years old and 10 years old.
Because of a dog.
This story is from the Guardian UK
A dog owned by one tribe, the Chakranis, was shot dead because it strayed too close to a well controlled by their rivals, the Qalandaris. In revenge the Chakranis shot a donkey belonging to the other side. A ferocious bout of tit-for-tat killings ensued in which 19 people, including five women, were killed.
The fighting ended in 2002 when Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti - a rebellious tribal chieftain who was later killed by the Pakistan army - brought the two sides together. Bugti ordered the Chakranis to hand over 15 child brides in compensation; at a jirga, or tribal council. Last Friday they finally agreed to make good on that promise, said Marri.
"They agreed to pay some money and exchange the ladies," he said.
despite previous shows of similar anger, official action has lagged far behind. "The government is unwilling to use its authority to protect women. It will find any excuse," said Asma Jahangir, a local human rights figure.
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A cursory amount of research while being sickened in reading this story finds that Vanni is an ancient tribal tradition, elsewhere called Swara. Jirgas are tribunals of elders who have broad powers in settling disputes, they have often resulted in some the stonings of women that the Western press occasionally covers. I had not heard of this barbaric custom of trading young women as payment for transgressions and frankly find it appalling that this can occur in any country in this day and age.
The new government in Islamabad, led by the party of the late Benazir Bhutto, has promised to act. "We will not allow young girls to be traded like this," said the information minister, Sherry Rehman. "The culprits who tried to do this will be arrested. The orders have been given."
But Jahangir said those orders had not been acted upon. "There is a dysfunction in the whole system. They are not listening to the government," she said. "We need to see them being more effective than just rhetoric."
Vanni, an ancient tribal practice in which feuding clans settle their differences by exchanging women for marriage, is illegal in Pakistan. In 2004 the Sindh high court outlawed all such "parallel justice" systems. But the writ of government is weak in rural areas, and local police often turn a blind eye.
From a 2006 article on the practice I learned that oftentimes the traded women are treated harshly after marriage as the grudges from the original conflict leave lasting emotions...and many are eventually killed...
In 2005, 17-year-old Rubina Bibi died under mysterious circumstances after eating a meal in the small village of Kas Koroona, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). She was living at the time in an animal shed -- the only place where her in-laws would allow her to stay.
Not far away, in another village called Gumbat Banda, villagers have "disclosed to me in hushed tones that young Tayyaba, who died a month and a half after her marriage in June 2006, was actually poisoned by her in-laws," Samar Minallah, an anthropologist and rights activist heading Ethnomedia and Development, a non-governmental organisation, told IPS. Tayyaba Begum, 20, was tortured by her in-laws from the day she entered their home, Minallah believes.
Zarmina Bibi, 19, married in February 2006, was allegedly shot dead by her brother-in-law two months after her marriage. Her mother-in-law claimed the girl was cleaning her husband's rifle and it went off. Zarmina's mother believes her daughter was murdered by the in-laws, Rafaqat Bibi, a social activist working in Mardan -- and no relation to Zarmina or Rubina -- told IPS.
All three young women were given in marriage to hostile families as compensation for a relative's crime in a practise called "swara" in Pashtun, parts of Afghanistan and the NWFP -- and "vanni" in the Punjab. Although officially outlawed in Pakistan, the custom prevails.
"For as long as I can remember, I've witnessed swara, but killing these poor women is a fairly recent phenomenon," said Rafaqat Bibi, who has observed the trend since 1998.
Kamila Hayat, joint director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told IPS via email from LaHore, "Swara is a virtual death penalty for young women who become victims of the tradition."
"Even in cases where they are not physically killed, the humiliation and misery they face, sometimes for an entire lifetime, is a terrible punishment. It is made all the worse by the fact that the women concerned are of course not guilty of any crime," Hayat added.
The article continues...
The root cause for most blood feuds is land, Khan said. To resolve conflicts the jirga, or village council, dictates sending a bride from the assailant's family to the aggrieved to put an end to all further killings.
Sometimes girls just a few months old are given as 'blood money' and married once they reach adulthood. At times when there are no women in the family, girls are purchased from another family.
"It's like proclaiming a death sentence," Khan told IPS. "A swara may be alive but her spirit has long been snuffed out. She is a constant reminder (to the in-laws) of the death of their loved one...The physical abuse may not always be there, but it's the psychological scars that she has to live with and which never seem to heal."
There are well documented cases but very little is being done...
On May 31st, 2006, in Shikarpur (lucky Ghulam Shah Tahsil) near Murid Sathar village, a local advocate Agha Sanaullah Durrani heard a compliant of Mr. Imdad Sathar against his cousin Muhammad Ramzan Sathar against the recovery of his 11 buffaloes.
The case was proven against Ramzan but even after two hearings he failed to pay the amount of 11 buffaloes and finally with the consent of father and grandfather he agreed another Jirga that he will produce his daughters (9 years old Heer and 1 years Karima) as compensation of 11 buffaloes.
He in the presence of 7 witnesses (Ghulam Mustafa, Abdul Raheem, Ali Gohar, Qambar, Aziz, Nizam Khawand Bux and Haider) signed on a stamp paper of Rs. 50 and promised to deliver the innocent daughters within three days.
and another.....
JACOBABAD: A local council (Jirga) headed by PPPP-MNA Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani Tahsil Nazim Thull Akbar Banglani and Peer Bharchoondi Mian Abdul Khalique ended a decade-old feud between two rival groups by offering five minors as compensation and slapping Rs one million fine on both warring parties.
The feud began in 1997 when Miandad Banglani was murdered in a shootout between Hafiz Qamaruddin and Ali Yar Banglani groups over Karo Kari (honor killing) charges in Village Kamal Magsi, Tahsil Thull District Jacobabad.
After repeated failed attempts for rapprochement between the warring groups, local elders decided to convene a Jirga headed by PPP MNA Bajrani.
The Jirga fined Yar Ali group Rs 870,000 and Qamaruddin group Rs 300,000. It was decided that the Yar Ali group would offer five girls as compensation for murder to the Hafiz Qamaruddin group in order to restore old relationship.
Qamaruddin said, “We are cousins but the feud was taking toll because my brother Miandad was wrongly murdered and the charges of Karo were against my nephew Murad Ali.” The tension between the two groups was increasing day by day and “we are thankful to the Jirga for hammering out rapprochement”, he added. A man from another group said, “The final peace will prevail between the two groups and we have accepted the fine imposed on us.
A final peace where five little girls are torn from their family and enslaved for the rest of their probably short lives...
From the Global Sisterhood Network
Marriage as compensation is a prevalent form of child marriage. Most girls given in 'vanni', 'swara' and 'sang chatti' are young children. “Hundreds of girls are trafficked within the country each year. There are markets in the North West Frontier Province, where these victims are sold like cattle,” writes I.A. Rehman (Pakistan: Trafficking of children on the rise).
There is some hope, an award was given to a human rights activist who has helped publicize the trauma
For the past 20 years, Samar Minallah has been advocating for the rights of rural women in Pakistan, first as a freelance journalist and then as an activist documentary filmmaker. Through her organization, Ethnomedia, Samar is effectively advocating against Swara or Vani, a custom throughout Pakistan where young girls and women are given as compensation to end disputes. In this custom, the criminal goes free and an innocent girl pays the price. She designed an outreach media campaign on "Violence Against Women in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan" highlighting the plight of female Afghan refugees and set up a doctor and training services for women and their children living in a jail for women.
We fathers and mothers of daughters in the Western world must become more aware of these travesties and do what we can to help by publicizing them and expressing our outrage.