Pait likhi, watta satta, swara, vani, jirga decisions, child marriages, forced conversions and enforced marriage, or rape first, and then marriage — there, seemingly, is no end to the varying ways in which marriage can be enforced in Pakistan. Sometimes girls are given in marriage to settle long-standing debts; at other times, even their outright sale occurs — and the consequence, expectedly, is their greater subservience.

Deeply ingrained cultural practices, poverty, ill-informed clerics willing to solemnise forced marriages — all these are responsible for the continuation and increase of forced marriage. In December 2011, Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) reported that FIRs had been lodged in 568 cases. Numerous cases of enforced marriages have been reported; two recent incidents were of Zahida and Farzana, both educated girls, forcibly married to illiterates.

Successive governments so far have failed to eliminate the scourge of forced marriages; the fact that such marriages have increased does not appear to have drawn alarm signals in relevant quarters. Where the public is concerned, the required change in mind-set has been slow to emerge. “Women continue to be treated as property”, says Kamila Hayat, Joint Director, HRCP.

The subservience so engendered continues from generation to generation.

Parentally arranged marriages, without consent of bride or groom, earlier occurred largely in rural areas. Now, high population influx of migrants and internally displaced peoples to urban areas has led to ancient discriminatory traditions creeping into cities. One of the outcomes has been growing numbers of forced marriages, where, depending on the husband’s nature, the bride’s life can be satisfactory — or hell. The wedding night may result in forced intercourse or rape. Unfortunately marital rape is not even recognised under Pakistani law, so the girl, or young woman, is left without any legal recourse.

Gender discrimination, female subservience, pathetic lack of awareness, malnourishment, conflicting laws — the cards are heavily stacked against women. Even favourable laws such as the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 have suffered weak implementation. Also, case law indicates that courts have upheld the rights of women to repudiate marriage performed by a father, guardian, or mother while the girl concerned was a minor.

The Chief Justice has declared vani and swara un-Islamic. Stringent punishments, with rigorous imprisonment, have been prescribed for those for those who contract jirga, vani or swara marriages. The Anti-Women Practices Act, 2008 criminalises forced marriages, including marriages of women to the Holy Quran.

Internationally, Pakistan is signatory to several international commitments: the UN Convention for Rights of the Child 1990; the UN Charter of Human Rights 1945; the International Conference of Population and Development, 1994; the Beijing Declaration, 1995, the Millennium Development Goals, 2000 — all reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and the equal rights of women and men.

Efforts to live up to these promised commitments are now under way, but far more is needed at the national level for faster redressal of an agonising situation. Forced and young-age marriages continue due to a combination of poverty, inaccessible educational facilities, gender discrimination, low value attributed to females, and stupendously low awareness: these causes must also be addressed.

Ensuring registration of all births and marriages, barring jirgas and panchayats, ensuring firm implementation of, and expediting and amending girl’s age of marriage to 18 in the Child Marriage Restraint Act to reflect unified age at marriage, are a few of the steps essential to help put Pakistan’s women on the path to progress.