Saudi Woman Who Elopes To Yemen Granted Asylum By UNHCR

It's not often you hear good news from the Middle East regarding star-crossed lovers. Usually one or the other- or both- wind up getting killed by family members. In this case, at least for now, it turned out happily for a Saudi woman and her Yemeni fiance'. Huda Abdullah Al Niran was betrothed to someone else as part of an arranged marriage, so she escaped to Yemen so she could marry her boyfriend Arafat. In fact two tribal leaders in Yemen helped them get married, including providing a house, and furniture for a bedroom for the couple.

However, things still could turn out badly since Huda is being charged with illegal entry into Yemen. Activists have protested, and she has now been granted asylum (at her request) by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which means that she can't be deported Not sure why UNHCR has anything to do with Yemen's granting asylum to the young woman, but according to an official the reason they did so was that she "could face torture or even death if she returned as tribal norms dictate in such cases."

Arafat is also being charged with helping Huda enter the country illegally, however his lawyer  claims that since he arrived at the border nine hours after Huda, technically he did not commit a crime.

She'll find out her fate on Tuesday.

Source: Gulf News

Yemeni Girl Who Refused Forced Marriage and Uncle Threatened By Islamists

Both the uncle of a Yemeni 11-year-old girl Nada al-Ahdal who said she would kill herself if she was forced to marry a Yemeni man living in Saudi Arabia, and the girl herself, have been threatened by Islamists linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The girl had been living with her uncle Abdel Salam al-Ahdal since she was three, but had returned home after her parents insisted she was to move back home.  She she ran away again after she was to be married off again.

The parents apparently have been marrying off their daughters for profit.

Girl, 10, Married Off To 50-Year-Old As Blood Feud Payment

There are some incredibly wretched customs in tribal Pakistan, like the one whereby blood feuds are resolved through 'vani' or forced child marriages, unless the family has enough money to settle the score. Although illegal in Pakistan, it is still a common practice in the conservative, tribal areas of the country.

Here's a true scenario: 

Even though he was married, Muhammad Akram decided he fancied Munawaran Bibi, so he kidnapped her (another common custom in Pakistan) and then married her.  So now he had two wives.  Pissed off about the abduction Munawaran's 50-year-old brother Falak Sher demanded vani, so the village court ordered Akram's 10-year-old daughter to be handed over to him in marriage.

The FIR filed by the girl’s uncle reveals that Falak Sher had barged into Akram’s house along with seven other men, including a prayer-leader from a local mosque, and performed a forced nuptial ritual in the presence of Akram’s first wife.

It appears the child managed to run away, back to her parents. But according to villagers, the police have been reluctant to do anything about the nine people that the uncle file a complaint against, including Sher, the village 'court' and the prayer leader.

She can thank her stupid dad for her predicament.

Pakistani Police Raid Marriage of 5-Year-Old Girl to 18-Year-Old

Chalk it up to supreme ignorance and a religion whose prophet married an underage girl and you have people pawning off their own pre-pubescent daughters, in some cases no older than a toddler.

In Peshawar, Pakistan police raided the wedding of 5-year-old Ajwa to 18-year-old Amir Khan.

“They were informed that marriage of underage girls is illegal and they were shocked,” a policeman, who was part of the raid, told The Express Tribune. “They said we’re illiterate and do not know about the law.” The girl’s parents have been arrested.   [snip]

While the police arrested only the girl’s parents and not the boy’s, DSP Riazul Islam said that an FIR will be registered against not just the girl’s but the boy himself and his parents as well for attempting to marry an underage girl.

The marriage of underage boys and girls is a crime under the Marriage Restrict Act of 1929 as well as against the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, said Imran Takkar, the operations manager at NGO the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. Pakistan has ratified and signed the UN charter.

“Under the marriage act, no girl below the age of 16 can be married off. The UN convention says that any boy or girl below the age of 18 is a child,” Takkar explained.

5 years old? Whether they are just claiming ignorance of the law, or actually had no clue, is debatable. What isn't debatable is their stupidity.

18% of Young Asian Brits Support 'Honor' Based Violence

A poll sponsored by the BBC found that of the 500 young Asian Brits surveyed, 18% (1 in 5) think it's okay to beat the heck out of women if they've 'dishonored' their families. Killing them, not so much. Only 3% justified 'honor killings' for either

disobeying a father, rejecting a prearranged marriage, or marrying someone unacceptable by the family.

Not surprisingly, 6 percent of those were men as opposed to 1 percent of women.

A great majority of the 16 to 34-year-olds polled believe that 'honor' (as if violence is honorable) is a very important element in family life.  75% of those were men versus 63% of women. 

Violence against women is a huge global problem, but in a culture that devalues women and places more importance on 'honor' it becomes monumental.  And although Muslims aren't the only ones who participate in 'honor killings' and violence against women, it doesn't help matters that the Quran actually promotes wife beating for disobedience.

 Karma Nirvana,

...a charity that supports victims and survivors of honor based violence, reported on its Website that it receives “on average approximately 5,000 calls a year on our national helpline supporting all victims and survivors of forced marriage and honor based abuse.”

Jasvinder Sanghera, of the Karma Nirvana, fled her parent’s home when they attempted to force her into an arranged marriage at the age of 14.

She urged Asian community leaders in Britain to speak against the honor code, also known as “Izzat” in Urdu language.

“I’ve yet to see community leaders, religious leaders, politicians; Asian councilors give real leadership on this. They don’t because they know it makes them unpopular,” Sanghera told the BBC.

According to a spokesperson for the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization (IKWRO), last year in the U.K. there were over 2,800  cases of  "‘honor’ based violence" reported to the police.

“These figures demonstrate that ‘honor’ based violence is not a minor problem but a very serious issue which affects thousands of people each year, many of whom will suffer high levels of abuse before they seek help,”

Many feel that 'forced marriage' is a major factor in honor based violence, so in an effort to thwart violence against young women who refuse to marry men that their families match them up with, Brit authorities are considering criminalizing it.

The Home Office has launched a campaign seeking public opinion on creating a specific criminal offence for forced marriages and how it should be formulated.

I sincerely doubt anything will come of it. Arranged marriages are a long standing tradition for many Asians, and laws won't prevent them from taking place, or the violence against a daughter/sister who refuses to comply.