Religion of Peace update I: Moslem groom allows wife to be raped

From The Times of India:

The incident occurred in Dera Ghazi Khan town in Pakistan Punjab.

According to Ghulam Hussain, the father of the victim Kaneez Kubra, his daughter was married to Mujahid Hussain on April 28.

This was ordered by a panchayat (local jury) as Kaneez's brother Abdul Majid had sexual relations with Mujahid's sister Sumera.

After the wedding, Kaneez Kubra went to the groom's home. Her husband stayed with her in their room till 11 pm and then left, Daily Times reported Monday.

Mujahid's grandfather Shahroo Khan and his mother Mukhtar then came in and told the bride that the wedding was just an excuse to exact revenge on Majid for outraging Sumera's modesty.

Mujahid Hussain then called in three friends - Muhammad Rafiq, Shabbir Muhammad and Abdul Majid Almani - who gang-raped the bride. The next day, Mujahid Hussain took her to the house of his friend Ghulam Mustafa, who also assaulted her.

Authorities initially refused to "register the case" when the girl's father came to them. When he appealed to a higher authority in the Pakistani government, they finally registered it.

Africa's News24 reports:

In Pakistan's tribal and rural Punjab, women are married without their consent in compensation for the crime committed by their male family members to settle the dispute under "Swara" and "Vani" customs.

Human rights activists and Muslim scholars have opposed these customs and asked the government to take action against them.

"Islam provided for pardon, killing for killing or blood money as three options to settle murder," said Anis Ahmed, a scholar at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, adding "there is no other way and swara or any other such practice has no basis in Islam".

In 2002, eight young women, including two sisters aged two and four, escaped vani marriages near the Punjab city of Mianwali after the Supreme Court of Pakistan said the practice violated the law and norms of civilised society.

Coverage: Southern Appeal

Pings: Jawa Report

Posted by Danny Carlton at May 31, 2005 08:59 AM