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Sun 4 Mar, 2007 09:50 pm
Quote:Woman hands over daughter to pay for poker debt
By Zarar Khan
Associated Press
Feb. 27, 2007 08:43 AM
KARACHI, Pakistan - Police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders, accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt, officials said Tuesday.
In the latest case highlighting how conservative customs threaten women's rights in Pakistan, Nooran Umrani alleges that, despite paying off her late husband's debt of $165, she was threatened with harm if she failed to hand over her daughter, Rasheeda.
The 17-year-old was to be surrendered as a bride for the son of Lal Haider, the man who won the card game years before, Umrani told reporters on Monday in Hyderabad, 100 miles northeast of Karachi.
Umrani said her husband was a gambler who ran up the debt at a poker game when Rasheeda was 1 year old. He promised Haider that he would get Rasheeda in lieu of payment when she grew up, the mother said.
Koral Shah, a Hyderabad police officer, said both families belong to the Umrani tribe of Pakistan's impoverished Baluchistan province.
He said a group of elders from the tribe came to Hyderabad in January to investigate the case and had ruled that, under tribal custom, the girl should be married to Haider's 23-year-old son Abdul Ghani.
Police want to arrest the elders, he said.
Police said Tuesday the mother and daughter were in their protection and that an investigation was opened against Haider, his son and eight others.
"We are investigating the matter and vigorously searching" for the men, Hyderabad police chief Irfan Bhutto said.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has vowed to give women more rights in line with his policy to project Pakistan as a moderate, progressive Islamic nation.
In December, Musharraf signed into law a bill that makes it easier to prosecute rape cases in the courts, and the country's ruling party recently introduced a bill to outlaw forced marriages, including under tribal custom in which women are married off in order to settle disputes.
It never ceases to amaze me when I read stories like this. It's like the ones I've read of the lighting on fire of women in India.
Well, what's worse than someone who doesn't pay her debts?
Some things are simply incomprehensible to my western mind...
I am not surprised by this story. In many parts of the world, women are commodities, to be bought, sold and traded, by men. I hope that the men who did this rot in jail.
I still send my wife out to start my car.
I wish I could win a 17 year old woman in a card game.
Consider the risk, however, of losing. They may have Unnatural Appetites.
JLNobody wrote:Well, what's worse than someone who doesn't pay her debts?
It was her husband's debt. Because he was an idiot gambler, years down the road, she felt obligated to "pay".
What a ridiculous society.
Slappy, you're perverted. I wish I could win a 70 year gal in a poker game.
Phoenix, you're right. In addition, throughout the world workers are (regardless of gender and age) considered commodities...a watered down form of slavery if you'll pardon my exaggeration.
It is sad. There are so many things we take for granted in our society. However some 200 years back (which is a flicker of time in human history), it could be similar in any of the places where we all come from. Who knows what world will be like in another 200 years from now??
Here are the lyrics of a Mexican ranchero song I heard, with amazement, about 30 years ago (my translation):
The Professional Gambler
Martín Estrada Contreras,
a professional gambler
had a love, since he was a child,
and could never forget her
He set his eyes very high;
the son of the farm manager,
Raúl Vidal, a rich man
stole Martín's love
With a bullet in his leg
Martín left town;
time went by, he came back
and found her married
When Martín returned, he was now rich
and came to play against Raúl;
but Raúl had lost everything
and had nothing to bet
-You have something in your life
I wasn't able to reach
I bet all of my money
if you want to bet her love
Raúl thought it for a while
and finally accepted;
when four aces were uncovered
Raúl thought he would die
Those are the rules of the game;
one must learn to suffer
Raúl had four kings
there was nothing to be discussed
-Look Raúl, gambling debts are always debts of honor. I defeated you, I won what I want the most... there was a former debt but I think we are even and you pay right now if there's some honor left in you.
Raúl came back with his wife,
and when Martín opened the door
Vidal unloaded his weapon
and his dead wife fell
Martín took her in his arms
and looking at his rival,
he also took out his gun
and killed don Raúl Vidal
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