WOMEN, GIRLS, GIVEN AWAY TO END PAKISTAN FEUDS

In February, a four-year-old girl was handed over to a 45-year-old man as his Ôbride.' The Ômarriage,' in the Dera Ismail Khan area in the populous Punjab province, took place because a young man named Farooq had eloped with a local girl.

In retaliation, a panchayat (gathering of village elders) ordered that Farooq's four-year-old niece be handed over to Mahboob, the paternal uncle of the woman with whom he had eloped, to assuage the loss of Ôhonor' her family had suffered.

The practice -- vani -- continues despite a government ban in 2005. It involves young women being used as compensation for a crime committed by a male relative. The girls are almost always minors, often infants, at the time they are Ômarried,' and the actual handing-over takes place after puberty.

Tribal leaders maintain this practice averts the kind of blood feuds between rival clans seen all too often in the region -- and consequently saves hundreds of lives.

However, the women involved are often treated as little more than slaves in the homes of their in-laws, facing constant humiliation as a reminder that they are there to pay for a crime committed by their fathers, uncles or other relatives. In some cases, they are murdered.

Samar Minallah, an anthropologist who has been studying the practice for the past five years, believes the number of women who have died in mysterious circumstances after such marriages is increasing.

"The women suffer for a crime in which they had no role. There is no way of telling precisely how many such crimes are committed," IA Rehman, the director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IRIN.

But awareness-raising campaigns by civil society groups have had some impact. In November 2005, in a case that received widespread publicity, Amna Niazi, 22, a student in Pubjabi's Mianwali district where vani is widespread, with her two sisters and two cousins, refused to be handed over to men to whom they had been promized in 1996, when they were between six and 13 years old.

They were designated as vani brides by a village council after their uncle, Muhammad Iqbal, was accused of killing his cousin. To save himself, Iqbal agreed to hand over his daughter and four nieces to men from the family of his victim.

The intended brides, however, declined to accept the marriages. A village Ôjirga' (tribal gathering) ordered that they be abducted, raped or killed, but the girls were protected by the local administration and civil society organizations. ÔBlood money' was paid to compensate for the murder and the Ôdivorce' of the girls arranged. However, they and their families have still experienced harassment, despite official protection.

"It is resistance from the people themselves that can end such practices. This is a very encouraging trend," Rehman said.

The authorities have also played their part. In 2006, several vani women were rescued by police, Ôdivorces' arranged and in some cases those arranging such marriages charged and produced in court.

The precise number of such crimes is unknown, however, since most exchanges are never reported.