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Old Wednesday, January 23, 2013
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Married to Traditions



Several nefarious tribal, rural and even urban societal customs deny the womenfolk their due right of inheritance


Most veiled and modern women in both conservative and liberal strata of Pakistani society share the same fate of being 'omitted' when it comes to getting their share in the property of their parents or male siblings.

Though many traditions regarding marriage in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are similar, the trend of inter-family marriages that ensures that the ownership of inherited property remains in the family is equally shared in Punjab and Sindh.

However, one custom peculiar to Sindh is the marriage of a female to the Holy Quran. Although the tradition is not a common practice anymore, it was used to protect the family fortune from going out into the hands of the girl's in-laws by filling a marriage certificate with 'Quran' written in the space for husband's name. This meant the woman would be considered as 'married' and that she would remain in the family home till death.

Various age-old customs are in practice in KP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that deny women their due right of inheritance. One such tradition is the remarrying of a widowed female to her brother-in-law, ignoring any age difference that might be there between the two.
The peshimam (prayer leader) of a mosque in Tank town in the southern part of KP is said to have told his daughter's would-be in-laws that he was against 'selling' her off but they could pay for his daughter's pet cat. He quoted Rs 500,000 as the cat's price. This way he 'justified' accepting "walvur" (Pashto word for bride-money).
A woman being married off to a much younger man is even more common. In some cases, a young widow is forced to tie the knot with a man twice her age and a previously married man.

Defying this custom is not common in the conservative Pakhtun society as it is hard for a woman to live by her own. However, there are a few brave ones who resist this tradition. Gul Meena, 24, a widow, is one such lady who chose to live with her parents (in their home) with her two daughters and a son in their native village in Mardan.

"Only a few months after the death of my husband, my brother-in-law who had five kids asked me to accept him as my new husband. I refused because he was illiterate. I was allowed to leave my in-laws' house only after I eased up on my demand for my husband's share in the agricultural land," Gul Meena tells the media.

She now relies on her husband's pension for the upbringing of her three children.

One tradition common to the tribes in North and South Waziristan, Orakzai Agency and some Afridi tribes in the Khyber Agency is that of demanding money for daughter or sister from the in-laws. This bride-money is considered as repayment for the upbringing and protection of the female since her birth.

There are interesting ways of going about it. The peshimam (prayer leader) of a mosque in Tank town in the southern part of KP is said to have told his daughter's would-be in-laws that he was against 'selling' her off but they could pay for his daughter's pet cat. He quoted Rs 500,000 as the cat's price. This way he 'justified' accepting "walvur" (Pashto word for bride-money).

A religious scholar in Peshawar, Mufti Saifur Rahman terms the practice as "against Sharia" and, therefore, un-Islamic. "Selling females or fixing a rate for their upbringing is against Islamic teachings. It is obligatory for the girl's father or brother to provide her with all the basic facilities till they are married. This isn't a favour that they are doing," he declares.

Mufti Saifur Rahman argues that no excuses are valid in denying one's sister or daughter her due Islamic share. "Some people say that even if they try, their sisters won't accept any share in the inherited property. This is a lame excuse. As a Muslim, give the due share to your sister/daughter and, if she pleases, she can return it to you later," he explains.

It may be mentioned here that the brother-in-law of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the founder of the Tanzim-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) who led a violent struggle for the enforcement of Sharia in Swat and the rest of the Malakand division and is now in jail, filed a lawsuit against the latter demanding that he should give his sister her due share in the inherited family property. It was like paying Sufi Mohammad in the same coin because he had been talking about Sharia and not yet granted share in the inherited property to his sister.

Advocate Noor Alam Khan, chairman of the non-governmental organisation ‘Voice of Prisoners’, points out that the inheritance and marriage issues in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA are not restricted to the illiterate and rural people because educated Pakhtuns also hesitated to grant rights to the heirs. "We were hired by a well-known professor hailing from Bannu to file a lawsuit against his three brothers who had deprived from inheritance the British family of their fifth brother who married and died in the UK," he recalls.

''The wife and the two children of the deceased UK-based doctor were Muslim converts but his brothers were of the view that their brother had married a Christian woman and, thus, she along with her children was not entitled to Rs. 15 million inherited share of her husband," he says.
Although women in Pakistan are still a long way from attaining their proper inheritance rights, a positive change among the religious-minded and the educated lot is in the offing. Or, so it seems, as a small but growing number of people are willingly giving the due share in the inherited family property to their daughters and sisters.
One of the many ways of avoiding inheritance lawsuits is distancing oneself from one's siblings. In one such complaint filed by a woman in a Peshawar civil court, it transpired that her brothers had tried to prove to the judge that they had given their only sister her share eight years ago. Their argument was that their sister had died a few years after getting the share, and it obviously wasn't true.

The practice of negating inheritance rights to females isn't common only among the commoners. In fact, some people, who are the upholders of the law, also hate sharing their paternal property with their female siblings. A judge in Peshawar was dragged to the court by his sister and stepsisters. After long court proceedings, he lost his case as his remarks through which he labelled his stepmother as his father's mistress were trashed by the court.

The second argument made by the judge that his real sister was not authorised to get her share in the inherited property as she had married without the family's consent was also declared null and void by the court.

Although women in Pakistan are still a long way from attaining their proper inheritance rights, a positive change among the religious-minded and the educated lot is in the offing. Or, so it seems, as a small but growing number of people are willingly giving the due share in the inherited family property to their daughters and sisters. Requesting anonymity, an educated man from Chitral says that his wife, who hails from Gilgit, has received her inherited share in the family property from her brothers. Instead of finding an excuse to deny the women their due inheritance rights, such few enlightened and well-meaning people are trying to ensure that they are just and truthful in their dealings with their women.


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