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Prominent families in Pakistan marry their daughters to Qur'an
In a report titled 'Married to the Quran' in the Pakistani weekly newspaper 'The Friday Times' of Pakistan, it said:
"According to news, a large number of feudals in Sindh had married their daughters to the Quran. The ceremony took place after the girl of the family was asked to take a bath, after which a Quran was put before her as the men folk apologised to her for the ritual which would condemn the girl never to get married but to read the Quran every day. In Sindh, MPA Shabbir Shah�s sister, ex-minister Murad Shah�s sister and two daughters, three daughters of Mir Awwal Shah of Matiari, daughters and sisters of Sardar Dadan and Nur Khan of the Lund tribe, nieces of Sardar Ghulam of Mahar tribe, and the daughters of the Pir of Bharchundi Sharif, were all married to the Quran to prevent their share of the land going to them and thus avoid redistribution of land."
The Friday Times: Pakistan's First Independent Weekly Paper (Jan 17-23, 2003 issue)
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .....................
KARACHI: Seven years ago, Zubaida Ali witnessed a bizarre ceremony in her ancestral
village in Sindh where her cousin Fareeba was married to the Holy Quran.
“It was extremely odd and, of course, very tragic. Fareeba, who is a very pretty girl
and was then around 25 years old, was dressed as a typical bride, with red, sequined
clothes, jewellery and mehndi patterns on her hands and feet but over all this she was
draped in an enveloping dark chaddor. There was music and lots of guests but no groom,’’
Zubaida, 33, was quoted as saying by IRIN, the UN information unit in a report.
The tradition under which Fareeba was `wed’ is known as `Haq Bakshish’, which literally
translates into giving up the right to marry. Families use Haq Bakshish to prevent property
leaving the family when a girl weds someone who is not a relative.
Fareeba, who can now never wed a man, spends most of her time studying the Holy Quran
or stitching. She is a `Hafiza’, or one who knows the Holy Quran by heart.
The Haq Bakshish tradition, most common in Sindh, but also followed in parts of the Punjab,
is most often practiced by feudal families, often `Syeds’. Syed families are often reluctant
to allow women to marry into non-Syed families, in a kind of a caste system that sees such
families as being lower in status.
Moreover, in cases when no match deemed suitable exists within the family for a young
woman of marriageable age, rather than have property leave the family when a woman
weds outside it and takes her share of the property with her, it may be decided to preserve
it by marrying her to the Holy Quran.
But the practice, frowned upon by almost all religious scholars and much of mainstream Islam,
is generally practiced in secret. It has been reported that even the families of prominent
political leaders from Sindh have engaged in the custom, but this is usually denied by the
persons concerned.
“It is not at all Islamic and in fact violates religion. We are moving to ban this cruel practice,’’
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, said. Hussain
has recently introduced a bill in the 342-member National Assembly under which such marriages,
as well as other forms of enforced marriage, would be banned. The bill is currently being studied
by a parliamentary committee and is likely to be debated in the National Assembly over the
coming few weeks.
For similar reasons, the marriage of women to trees, or sometimes to small boys or old men, has
also been reported as a means to protect property. Many of these practices, however, remain
shrouded in secrecy within families and it is difficult to determine precise details or the exact numbers.
But writers and researchers on cultural practices in Sindh believe that such marriages are not uncommon.
The tradition, which is thought to have existed for centuries, gained greater prominence after a novel,
`The Holy Woman’, based on the practice was published nearly six years ago. Written by Pakistan-based
British writer Qasira Shahraz, the novel narrates the story of a young woman married in this fashion.
Despite this and other campaigns, many of Pakistan’s 160 million inhabitants remain unaware that
such traditions even exist at all. “I did not believe this happened here. I had heard in my village
that some women devoted their lives to religion, but I did not know it was forced upon them in
this manner,’’ said Zubaida Ali, who like most other women and many men, fiercely opposes the
practice.
Many provisions of the repressive Hudood ordinances, a set of Islamic laws brought in under former
President General Zia ul-Haq in 1979 under which many women were jailed as punishment for alleged
adultery or other `moral’ crimes, were finally changed late last year. But even in Pakistan’s current
climate of change, it remains to be seen how successful the struggle to end traditions such as
Haq Bakshish will prove. ppi
"According to news, a large number of feudals in Sindh had married their daughters to the Quran. The ceremony took place after the girl of the family was asked to take a bath, after which a Quran was put before her as the men folk apologised to her for the ritual which would condemn the girl never to get married but to read the Quran every day. In Sindh, MPA Shabbir Shah�s sister, ex-minister Murad Shah�s sister and two daughters, three daughters of Mir Awwal Shah of Matiari, daughters and sisters of Sardar Dadan and Nur Khan of the Lund tribe, nieces of Sardar Ghulam of Mahar tribe, and the daughters of the Pir of Bharchundi Sharif, were all married to the Quran to prevent their share of the land going to them and thus avoid redistribution of land."
The Friday Times: Pakistan's First Independent Weekly Paper (Jan 17-23, 2003 issue)
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .....................
KARACHI: Seven years ago, Zubaida Ali witnessed a bizarre ceremony in her ancestral
village in Sindh where her cousin Fareeba was married to the Holy Quran.
“It was extremely odd and, of course, very tragic. Fareeba, who is a very pretty girl
and was then around 25 years old, was dressed as a typical bride, with red, sequined
clothes, jewellery and mehndi patterns on her hands and feet but over all this she was
draped in an enveloping dark chaddor. There was music and lots of guests but no groom,’’
Zubaida, 33, was quoted as saying by IRIN, the UN information unit in a report.
The tradition under which Fareeba was `wed’ is known as `Haq Bakshish’, which literally
translates into giving up the right to marry. Families use Haq Bakshish to prevent property
leaving the family when a girl weds someone who is not a relative.
Fareeba, who can now never wed a man, spends most of her time studying the Holy Quran
or stitching. She is a `Hafiza’, or one who knows the Holy Quran by heart.
The Haq Bakshish tradition, most common in Sindh, but also followed in parts of the Punjab,
is most often practiced by feudal families, often `Syeds’. Syed families are often reluctant
to allow women to marry into non-Syed families, in a kind of a caste system that sees such
families as being lower in status.
Moreover, in cases when no match deemed suitable exists within the family for a young
woman of marriageable age, rather than have property leave the family when a woman
weds outside it and takes her share of the property with her, it may be decided to preserve
it by marrying her to the Holy Quran.
But the practice, frowned upon by almost all religious scholars and much of mainstream Islam,
is generally practiced in secret. It has been reported that even the families of prominent
political leaders from Sindh have engaged in the custom, but this is usually denied by the
persons concerned.
“It is not at all Islamic and in fact violates religion. We are moving to ban this cruel practice,’’
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, said. Hussain
has recently introduced a bill in the 342-member National Assembly under which such marriages,
as well as other forms of enforced marriage, would be banned. The bill is currently being studied
by a parliamentary committee and is likely to be debated in the National Assembly over the
coming few weeks.
For similar reasons, the marriage of women to trees, or sometimes to small boys or old men, has
also been reported as a means to protect property. Many of these practices, however, remain
shrouded in secrecy within families and it is difficult to determine precise details or the exact numbers.
But writers and researchers on cultural practices in Sindh believe that such marriages are not uncommon.
The tradition, which is thought to have existed for centuries, gained greater prominence after a novel,
`The Holy Woman’, based on the practice was published nearly six years ago. Written by Pakistan-based
British writer Qasira Shahraz, the novel narrates the story of a young woman married in this fashion.
Despite this and other campaigns, many of Pakistan’s 160 million inhabitants remain unaware that
such traditions even exist at all. “I did not believe this happened here. I had heard in my village
that some women devoted their lives to religion, but I did not know it was forced upon them in
this manner,’’ said Zubaida Ali, who like most other women and many men, fiercely opposes the
practice.
Many provisions of the repressive Hudood ordinances, a set of Islamic laws brought in under former
President General Zia ul-Haq in 1979 under which many women were jailed as punishment for alleged
adultery or other `moral’ crimes, were finally changed late last year. But even in Pakistan’s current
climate of change, it remains to be seen how successful the struggle to end traditions such as
Haq Bakshish will prove. ppi
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