The Price of Love

I have a sinking feeling Hameed will have his way.

Intrestingly last night on Geo or ARY, there was a discussion related to a case where a father in balochistan was selling his daughters off, either for money or to pay off debts that he had accumalated due to excessive gambling.
Unfortunately the law was unable to intervene in the case, and in other cases cited during the discussion due to the fact that the woman herself had not lodged a complaint! This is the ludicrosy of a system that protects the men, anyone with half a brain would know that no woman can go against her father or husband in the fear of physical repercussions.
I hope articles like this and others to come and help create awareness - lets stop worrying about the West for a little bit and focus on the way we treat Muslims in these countries.

Gibran Bham

tell me miss sawar, on writing the article on woman in prisons, were you able to visit a woman`s prison by some authority? It seems to me that there is a need for an independent board of visitors to Pakistani prisons to monitor their conditions and see if there human rights being infringed upon. what do you think.

Hi, Met you recently. Unfortunately lost your email id. Did you read the article posted on the civic centre about- the forgotten 54? My id is simmiwm@yahoo.co.in. Since I`ve lost yours, Pl send it to me again on my id. Simmi Waraich.

Jibbe: yes, I was able to visit the women`s prison in Khi - but they didn`t let me take a TV camera inside. It`s clean, airy, spacious - but still a prison as one woman said. The men`s prison is worse - I wasn`t able to go inside, but met a prisoner working at the superindent`s office computer; he said he`d been framed for drug trafficking & had no lawyer. Now that Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid`s Legal Aid Cell has started functioning in the Karachi central jail (inaugurated July 30, 2004), maybe things will improve. beena

Nice article and very thought provoking. I keep reading about the Hudood ordinances, I wonder if someone can guide me to an article (And also honour killing) so that I can get more information on it.

In India of course, the laws are totally in favour of the woman. That however does not stop the thousands of dowry deaths that sadly take place. It does take place in middle class families too. One of my closest friends sister was a victim and the husband got away by showing that it was a cooking accident.

However there is a new trend amongst the brides in affluent societies in India to take advantage of the law and extract a huge alimony from the boys side if the marriage goes sour. One law is that if a woman makes a claim that she paid dowry and the marriage is less than 7 years old then the onus is on the husband to prove to the police that he did not take dowry.

Another interesting thing in India is some Matriarchal societies (Kerela and North East) where the woman wears the pants of the house literally. They own all the property (Men dont) and the child takes their name. The men have no power and if they get drunk, they are locked up in a room in the house as a punishment by the wife !!!!

Cheers

Update on this case is, unfortunately as Saman Khan predicted, the girl`s father did get his way. Unable to withstand the pressure (she`d been beaten up, locked up, and forced into a nikkah with her cousin), she eventually told `Kalam` to leave her alone, and he has given up the case. Unless the two of them are willling to fight it out, there`s nothing anyone on the outside can do, sadly. Re: mshergill`s question - lots of links to hudood ordinance articles, including on this site; I provided some links in a previous interact here.
beena

the article is a fabulous and a must have for anyone who wants to know the practical limits to liberty in pakistan......esp for women......see......pakistan has anything but liberal democracy, the core of which is freedom of decision making and expression....

what can we say further more about the ill-toilet located at mecca, saudi arabian kings, have extended their ill-laws beyond their country`s boundrys. That means continued war on an din the middle-east for the coming generations to have their world free of islam, the illness on planet earth. although by now laws have changed in this country, but one knows, you step on youngsters rights to make it up with their counter-gents. they get your lower back to the dead-level of grave.