PESHAWAR, Feb 1: An Iranian girl, who has accused her Afghan husband and in-laws of forcing her into prostitution, has sought help from the Iranian authorities in Pakistan to send her to her country.

Maryam Faizi, 16, said she wanted to return to her country and was not ready for a ‘patch-up’ with her husband Salih, an Afghan refugee living in Peshawar.

Ms Faizi, who has been living in the provincial women crisis centre for almost a month, in her appearance before a court has refused a patch-up with her husband and in-laws.

“My husband used to torture me. I am fed up with the life here and want to return to my parents. They don’t know my in-laws are abusing me,” said Ms Faizi, who belongs to a poor family in Mashhad.

Ms Faizi fled from a group of people when she learnt from them that she had been sold by her husband to them. The people passing by heard her screams on the night of Jan 3, 2006 and helped her register an FIR at Faqirabad police station under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) section-107 against her husband.

She alleged that they had forced her into prostitution.

However, an official of the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar, on condition of anonymity, said that details and credentials of Ms Faizi had been sent to Iran for verification but so far officials had found no proof of her being an Iranian and had not been able to locate her parents in Mashhad.

“She does not have Iranian passport or ID card which could help us confirm her identity. Unless we find out who she is we cannot help her,” official sources said.

There were few more such cases in the past where Afghan women taking refuge in Iran had claimed to be Iranians and sought help, the sources said.

Ms Faizi said that her father was a mechanic in Mashad province and a close friend of her father had introduced Salih’s family to her parents. According to the local custom, she said, her parents received 300,000 Tuman and handed her over to Salih’s family.

She said: “The Afghan in-laws were good to me and kept me for six months in Iran. They left Iran supposedly for Afghanistan but brought me to Quetta and then to Islamabad.

“I had no passport and we travelled by road to Islamabad where they started forcing me into prostitution after some months. Salih and his family then moved to Peshawar and lived in different localities.”

She said that she was fed up with her life in Pakistan and wanted to join her parents.

“I am sure they will accept me as it was not my fault. They will forgive me,” Ms Faizi said, who had only attended primary school and used to work in a carpet weaving industry along with her mother to earn their living.

Her mother-in-law, Nigar, said that Ms Faizi could not leave them and would have to come back as they have paid a huge amount to her parents at the time of her ‘wedding’.