Afghan girls traded for debts, blood feuds
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Salaam all
What islam says about this trade hmm
Afghan girls traded for debts, blood feuds
JALALABAD, Afghanistan ? Unable to scrounge together the US$165 he needed to repay a loan to buy sheep, Nazir Ahmad made good on his debt by selling his 16-year-old daughter to marry the lender?s son.?He gave me nine sheep,? Ahmad said, describing his family?s woes since taking the loan. ?Because of nine sheep, I gave away my daughter.?
Seated beside him in the cramped compound, his daughter Malia?s eyes filled with tears. She used a black scarf to wipe them away.
Despite advances in women?s rights and at least one tribe?s move to outlaw the practice, girls are traded like currency in Afghanistan and forced marriages are common. Antiquated tribal laws authorize the practice known as ?bad? in the Afghan language Dari ? and girls are used to settle disputes ranging from debts to murder.
Such exchanges bypass the hefty bride price of a traditional betrothal, which can cost upward of US$1,000. Roughly two out of five Afghan marriages are forced, says the country?s Ministry of Women?s Affairs.
?It?s really sad to do this in this day and age, exchange women,? said Manizha Naderi, the director of the aid organization Women for Afghan Women. ?They?re treated as commodities.?
Though violence against women remains widespread, Afghanistan has taken significant strides in women?s rights since the hard-line Taleban years, when women were virtual prisoners ? banned from work, school or leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative. Millions of girls now attend school and women fill jobs in government and media.
There are also signs of change for the better inside the largest tribe in eastern Afghanistan ? the deeply conservative Shinwaris.
Shinwari elders from several districts signed a resolution this year outlawing several practices that harm girls and women. These included a ban on using girls to settle so-called blood feuds ? when a man commits murder, he must hand over his daughter or sister as a bride for a man in the victim?s family. The marriage ostensibly ?mixes blood to end the bloodshed.? Otherwise, revenge killings often continue between the families for generations.
Jan Shinwari, a businessman and provincial council member, said a BBC radio report by a female journalist from the Shinwari tribe, Malalai Shinwari, had exposed the trade of girls and shamed the elders into passing the resolution to end the practice.
?I did this work not because of human rights, but for Afghan women, for Afghan girls not to be exchanged for stupid things,? Jan Shinwari said. ?When Malalai Shinwari reported this story about exchanging girls for animals, when I heard this BBC report, I said, ?Let?s make a change.??
Now a lawmaker in Parliament, Malalai Shinwari said her report had the impact she intended. She called the changes to tribal laws a ?big victory for me.?
About 600 elders from the Shinwar district put their purple thumbprint ?signatures? on the handwritten resolution.
Leaders discuss issue
More than 20 Shinwari leaders gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad, nodding earnestly and muttering their consent as the changes were discussed last week.
They insisted that women given away for such marriages ? including those to settle blood feuds ? were treated well in their new families. But the elders declined requests to meet any of the women or their families.
?Nobody treats them badly,? Malik Niaz said confidently, stroking his long white beard. ?Everyone respects women.?
But Afghan women say this could not be further from the truth.
?By establishing a family relationship, we want to bring peace. But in reality, that is not the case,? said Hangama Anwari, an independent human rights commissioner and founder of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation.
The group investigated about 500 cases of girls given in marriage to settle blood feuds and found only four or five that ended happily. Much more often, the girl suffered for a crime committed by a male relative, she said.
?We punish a person who has done nothing wrong, but the person who has killed someone is free. He can move freely, and he can kill a second person, third person because he will never be punished,? Anwari said.
A girl is often beaten and sometimes killed because when the family looks at her, they see the killer. ?Because they lost someone, they take it out on her,? Naderi said.
There are no reliable statistics on blood feud marriages, a hidden practice. When it happens, the families and elders often will not reveal details of the crime or the punishment.
Several years ago in nearby Momand Dara district, a taxi driver hit a boy with his car, killing him. The boy?s family demanded a girl as compensation, so the driver purchased an 11-year-old named Fawzia from an acquaintance for US$5,000 and gave her to the dead boy?s relatives, according to the Afghan Women?s Network office in Jalalabad.
Three years ago, Fawzia was shot to death, according to a two-page report kept in a black binder of cases of violence against women.
The story of Malia and the nine sheep illustrates the suffering of girls forced into such marriages.
Malia listened as her father described how he was held hostage by his lender, Khaliq Mohammad, because he could not come up with the money to pay for the sheep, which Ahmad had sold to free a relative seized because of another of Ahmad?s debts.
Ahmad was released only when he agreed to give Malia?s hand in marriage to the lender?s 18-year-old son. Asked how she felt about it, Malia shook her head and remained silent. Her face then crumpled in anguish and she wiped away tears.
Asked if she was happy, she responded halfheartedly, ?Well, my mother and father agreed ... ? Her voice trailed off, and she cried again.
Does she want to meet her husband-to-be? She clicked her tongue ? a firm, yet delicate ?tsk? ? with a barely perceptible shake of her head.
The answer was no.
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Salaam all
What islam says about this trade hmm
2443 ...and do not compel your young women (i.e., your daughters, your young sisters, or young adopted orphan women) on what is wrong/non-consentual, when they want protection, so that you may seek the materials of this low life, and whoever compels them, then the god after their compulsion is forgiving, merciful.
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=14397.msg134177#msg134177
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2443 ...and do not compel your young women (i.e., your daughters, your young sisters, or young adopted orphan women) on what is wrong/non-consentual, when they want protection, so that you may seek the materials of this low life, and whoever compels them, then the god after their compulsion is forgiving, merciful.
http//free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=14397.msg134177#msg134177
nope nope nope nope nope
Salaam all
What islam says about this trade hmm
81-8,9 The girl who was buried alive is askedFor what crime was she killed?
peace peacesiki
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They were not killed. They were traded in marriage.
I know, it was applicable literally then, and still holds good metaphorically for such incidents.
yes yes yes yes yes
nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope
zero possibility.
siki
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Peace all,
nope nope nope nope nope
yes yes yes yes yes
) ) ) ) )
Peace Afridi, it is so sad these poor girls have to pay for the faults of the others, poverty is the main factor involved, evil traditions are also to be blamed. According to my understanding, such swaps are unIslamic and violate the commandments of justice and fair dealing.
O ye who believe! stand out firmly for Allah as witnesses to fair dealing and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just that is next to Piety and fear Allah for Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do
peace
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I don't know what Islam says but the Quran says
419 O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should ye treat them with harshness, that ye may Take away part of the dower ye have given them,-except where they have been guilty of open lewdness; on the contrary live with them on a footing of kindness and equity. If ye take a dislike to them it may be that ye dislike a thing, and Allah brings about through it a great deal of good.
Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo la yahillu lakum an tarithoo alnnisaa karhan wala taAAduloohunna litathhaboo bibaAAdi ma ataytumoohunna illa an yateena bifahishatin mubayyinatin waAAashiroohunna bialmaAAroofi fain karihtumoohunna faAAasa an takrahoo shayan wayajAAala Allahu feehi khayran katheeran
That in addition to Samia's post.
Godbless,
Anwar -
Peace,
This burns me up. >( I hate reading sad cases like this one. If only they actually try to read the Quran, they would know that they are dead wrong for their actions. That is the problem. They insist on so much, yet they lack the proof for these things it is all tribal and savagery to a great extent. May God deal with them and correct those who are truly uninformed. Sometimes people do things for so long that they forget the truth. Here are some reminder from the Quran.
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If a debtor is in want, give him time until his circumstances improve; but if you forego (the debt) as charity, that will be to your good, if you really understand.
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Have fear of the day when you go back to God. Then each will be paid back in full his reward, and no one will be wronged.
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It is not for a believer to take a believer's life except by mistake; and he who kills a believer by mistake should free a slave who is a believer, and pay blood-money to the victim's family unless they forego it as an act of charity. If he belonged to a community hostile to you but was himself a believer, then a slave who is a believer should be freed. In case he belonged to a people with whom you have a treaty, then give blood-money to his family and free a believing slave. But he who has no means (to do so) should fast for a period of two months continuously to have his sins forgiven by God, and God is all-knowing and all-wise.
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Any one who kills a believer intentionally will be cast into Hell to abide there for ever, and suffer God's anger and damnation. For him a greater punishment awaits.
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And do not take a life, which God has forbidden, except in a just cause. We have given the right (of redress) to the heir of the person who is killed, but he should not exceed the limits (of justice) by slaying (the killer), for he will be judged (by the same law).
It's just that simple!!! But if they do not read the Quran or even know it they will continue on with what they've been doing. Ignorance seems to be the enemy here and sweet young ladies and women are paying the price as usual. >(
1311...Verily God does not change the state of a people till they change themselves...
Just my thoughts.
Peace
shirley
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