Sultanwala, Pakistan
Five girls, all cousins, appealed to Pakistan’s president and Supreme Court last week to save them from forced marriages. When the girls were young children 14 years ago, a village council ordered that as “compensation” for a murder committed by one of their fathers, they be married off to members of the victim’s family. The girls, who are all well educated, say they will kill themselves if forced to go through with the nuptials. Jehan Khan Niazi, father of three of the girls, said the blood money he paid should be enough. “I cannot hand over my girls like goats to marry these illiterate boys,” he said. “It is un-Islamic.” Vani, the tradition of awarding girls in marriage as compensation, was outlawed in Pakistan last year, but many villages continue to practice it.
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