Daily Times

Once again, a council of village elders has attempted to make an underage girl pay for the crimes of a male relative. Rang Shah Police have arrested two persons who were part of a Panchayat that ordered a man to marry his six year-old daughter off in a Vani decision. According to the girl’s father, the decision was made because his son had eloped with the daughter of an influential man from the area. The local influential initially threatened to kill him and his wife. According to the girl’s father, the police was initially hesitant about taking any action, forcing him to abscond with his family to save his daughter.

This is an all too familiar story, and at least the third such case to emerge this year. In March, 10 persons were arrested and a case was registered against 22 others for their involvement in a Vani case in Dera Ismail Khan. A freewill marriage turned out to be at the root of the dispute in this case as well. In February, 10 individuals were held over a Vani case in Mansehra. Reportedly, a Jirga was attempting to marry off two minor girls to settle a blood dispute. The arrested included one of the two minor victims’ brothers.

Such instances indicate two disturbing realities of the Pakistani society. The first obviously is misogyny. Women and girls are valued less than men and boys by their families; hence it is justified to make them pay for the mistakes or crimes of their male relatives. Unfortunately, rather than fulfilling their responsibility by challenging such attitudes, our political elite takes the easy way out and continues to engage in misogynistic politics. This election season opened up with attacks on Reham Khan the former wife of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s Chairman Imran Khan. National TV screens have aired the worst kind of language about Reham Khan and apparently no filter exists to contain this.

The second issue relates to the weaknesses of our justice system. Jirgas and Panchayats as parallel justice systems have no place in a constitutional democracy. Yet, people continue to gravitate towards them because of our corrupt, pendency ridden judicial system. These parallel justice systems then hand out punishments like Vani, Watta-Satta, sanctioned rapes (and gang rapes) and other crimes against women. This is why unless the state comes up with a long-term plan to tackle anti-women attitudes prevalent in Pakistani society and improve the justice system, Pakistani women and girls will continue to suffer due to such medieval customs.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.