*“The credit for this goes to President Musharraf who is endeavouring to give due status to women in society,” * :k:
Pakistan ruling party eyes ban on forced marriage
Pakistan’s ruling party introduced a bill in parliament on Tuesday aimed at outlawing the forced marriage of women and practices preventing them from inheriting property. The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill is expected to be referred to a committee that will finalise a draft to be debated and voted upon later. “The credit for this goes to President Musharraf who is endeavouring to give due status to women in society,” the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, told the lower house National Assembly. The bill seeks to end practices such as vani, a centuries-old tradition of marrying women off to settle disputes between families, and the practice of marrying women to the holy Quran, which deprives them of a share of family property, he said. Musharraf promised to push ahead with reforms to empower women after parliament in November adopted a bill curbing the scope of Islamic laws that had made it virtually impossible for women to accuse men of rape.
Re: Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill submitted in Parliament
Some salient features of the bill.
The new bill criminalises customs such as vanni and swara, in which young girls are given away in marriage to settle murder feuds. It prescribes a maximum of three years’ imprisonment for offenders in these cases.
In addition, the bill prescribes up to seven years in jail for those who deprive a woman of her right to property.
It further seeks to punish the practice of marrying women to the Koran with up to three years in jail.
Koran marriages are aimed at preventing a woman from contracting a normal marriage and bearing children who could then claim her share in ancestral property.
The bill proposes that husbands who bring charges of infidelity against their wives under Islamic law but fail in their cases could face charges of slander. In such cases, the wife would be given the power to initiate divorce proceedings.