Force marriages

Force marriages

Greetings dear audients of program, we are happy to be again at your service in presenting of another program campaign for change of the life, the result of forced marriages is the issue of our discussion in the program, our guests are Mrs.Nooria Haq Negar the member of C Soi office, Gul Makai Siawash the director of Kabul Orthopedic Co and one Women Rights Activists and Mariam Zulmai Hanifi the law defendant in Afghanistan Medika Office.

Question: First I would like to get information from Mrs. Haq Negar about the legal marriages and marriages based on Sharia (Islamic law) laws?

Answer: First I should say that the marriage is a contract that has special conditions considering the Sharia law and constitution, the age of marriage for boy has been specified 18 years while 16 years of the age has been set for marriage the girl, the marriages in lower ages than mentioned ages can be called forced marriages, on the other hand if both sides the boy and the girl are in legal ages but the agreement/mutual understanding doesn’t exist, the marriage can be still counted forced marriage.

From view point of Sharia some instances have been stated that should be respected/considered; first the consent of both sides specifically the consent of girl, second attaining the puberty age, the girl should announce loudly her consent but unfortunately the barrister of the girl announce the consent of girl in marriage session.

Question: You called the marriage a contract, are there any difference or similarities between Sharia laws and orders and Civil Laws?

Answer: Without doubt, most of  Civil Laws have been extracted from Islamic laws, for example the dowry is one of the issues that has been insisted either in Civil laws or in Sharia laws, or the conditions set from girl or boy that should be inserted in marriage certificate for instance the continuation of studies and visiting the relatives can be included as example of the conditions.

Question: Mrs. Siawash, if the set conditions are violated during married life by one of the sides (the wife or husband) will the marriage is cancelled?

Answer: First of all I  should say that the marriage is a legal contract with special conditions, when a  dispute/quarrel comes into existence between the wife and husband it does not mean that the marriage would be cancelled rather they can continue their life through discussions and understanding , if the uproars and dispute go on continuously as they cannot continue their married life properly, then the situation will culminate to divorce and the children would be those who that endure  the biggest  risks and problems.

Question: Mrs. Maryam, why the marriage take place in the community?

Answer: The aims is to establish the family and relatives; create the love, friendship, generation; prevent the illegal relations and implementing the Suna(order of Mohammad)  of prophet (PBUH) of Islam.

Question: Mrs.Nooria, please tell me why the forced marriages take place in our community?

Answer: There are certain issues involved in forced marriages, first the poverty, as some people perpetrate to forced marriages to earn the money, secondly lack of awareness as some people don’t know about the results of the forced marriages and the orders of civil laws and Islamic laws, third the man-lordism which is dominant in our community also can be counted one of the factors for forced marriages because most of the men don’t give importance to women and they do whatever they want. Lack of law enforcement on the powerful people is another factor for forced marriages because they can do whatever they want and there is no one to prosecute them.

Question: Mrs. Gul Makai, what are the main causes for forced marriages?

Answer: In my opinion, two issues play important role in the trend, first the engagement of the offspring during childhood, secondly the power and influence of the powerful in the community. There are parents in the community that engage their children when the give birth at the same time so when they grow they don’t love each other but as the girl is under name of the boy the boy forcefully marry the girl though he don’t feel any happiness about so finally we can say that this is also a type of forced marriage.

On the other hand we remember from previous years even now that the powerful people marry with the beautiful girls forcefully in some of the areas which makes double the problems in their life specifically for the life of girls.

Question: By your opinion, what works should be done to prevent the powerfulness and violence and why the government is silent against the powerful and violent people?

Answer: We all are living in one community; tell me in which field the practical work has been done to prevent the powerful people who forcefully marry with the wife of or daughter of the people. At present the people accused on perpetration different crimes including war crimes, violation of the human rights are the people that are working in high governmental positions, therefore how we can arrest them.

Question: Despite you are working in one of civil society institutions and these institutions are working to assess the awareness how we can say that nothing has been done yet?

Answer: The civil society does not has any practical work namely it is not an executive or implementer institution of the plans and drafts, though  appeal to justice, awareness and finally the coercion of the authorities to accomplish the affairs are parts of the duties that these institutions do which have had good affects in our community.

Question: Mrs. Maryam, as we always hear that the government speaks about equal rights of the men and women, the women are those who are being affected by forced marriages, why proper work is not being done in this field?

Answer: By my opinion, lack of cooperation among the people and lack of awareness about knowing each other rights among the families and people are the causes, on the other hand the poverty has also been effective that the families give up to agree with forced marriage.

If the media and other institutions properly launch the proper awareness regarding women rights and in general about the human rights the situation would be improved.

Question: Tell me briefly, is the maturity/puberty is a condition or a specified age for the marriage?

Answer: The article number 60 of Civil Law states about the marriage: the marriage is a contract that legalize the association between the couples to form a family and specify the rights and responsibilities of each other, the article number 70 of the Civil Law has specified the 16 years as marriage age for girls and set 18 years for the boys.

Question: Mrs. Nooria, one of the hearers has contacted us and asked a question that doesn’t the broadcasting/publishing the unethical, anti-custom and trite programs cause the illegal marriages and violence?

Answer: Well, I would like to tell to the hearer that the publications of some of the media are contrary to Islamic and ethical norms, they are under control of mafia, the mafia countries and institutions are trying to damage our people through different ways, and their efforts are going to make the publications trite and unethical. I would like to mention that the TVs don’t have publications in most of the parts of the country but it is still heard that a 9 years old child is being married or the nose or ear is being cut in age 13 or 14, in fact all of them are symbol of indecent culture of the community and lack of awareness of people regarding rights of each other.

Question: Mrs. Maryam, one of the hearers had contacted us and asked, would it not be better if we mention the Sharia wedlock/matrimony instead of contract during the matrimony?

Answer: By my opinion both has the same meaning if we mention the contract or the Sharia matrimony. Regarding the issue that the man can have four wives but the woman cannot have another husband I should say that the man can have four wives under specified conditions for example when the woman is abortive or there are other problem or the man can provide all the requirements his wives, then the Sharia law let him to have four wives.

Question: Mrs.Maryam, have the laws of our country mentioned any instances regarding the forced marriages or not and what punishment has been considered for those who perpetrate the forced marriages?

Answer: Yes, there are punishments for those who perpetrate the forced marriages for example the article number 517 of Punishment Law states that if a person wants to marry a woman without getting her consent he would be sentenced on short term imprisonment. Also the law of elimination of violence against women states in article number 26 that if a man want to marry forcefully a woman he would be sentenced on middle term imprisonment which would not be less than two years.

Question: Mrs. Siawash, what would be the negatives affects and results of the forced marriages on the families and finally on the community?

Answer: The forced marriages not only have negative and indecent effects on the girls rather they put negative effects on the boys as well, for example it has mostly happened that a young boy marry with the widow of his brother , less people have been able to agree about namely they have problem by age difference, these two cannot have a sound family due to family and ethical intercourse, the boy may face with psychological difficulties and numerous problems so when we have such a family the community would not get any gain about rather the community would face many problems.

Question: Mrs.Nooria, what is your opinion about?

Answer: Mrs. Siawash spoke well about the detriments of forced marriages, but by my opinion when a girl is compelled to marriage she would proceed to self-killing, self- burning, flee from the house and getting angry against the family and her fellow-creatures or she would be faced with seclusion.

The spreading of ethical corruption is another problem resulted from forced marriages as when a woman is not in consent with her husband and her family and don’t have good relations so to satisfy her wishes she  proceed to toward community.  Regarding the other negative effects of the forced marriage we can say that the forced marriages don’t present sound children to the community.

Question: Mrs. Hanifi, what is your opinion about giving the girls as bad, will the girl have good life with her new family?

Answer: The life of girls that are being given as bad is very tough, these girls cannot pass their life properly, we have examples of many events when the girls are given as bad for the remuneration of the murder that her brother or father perpetrates , these girls are seen by view of murderer and she faces problems every moment finally this situation causes the flee from the house or proceed to evil action such as self-killing and self-burning.

Question: Is there any punishments for those who give their daughter as bad in the law of the punishment?

Answer: The law of elimination of violence against the women states that the people that perpetrate giving the girls as bad would be sentenced for two years imprisonment.

Question: Mrs. Siawash, how we can generally give awareness to the families and community regarding the results of the forced marriages?

Answer: By my opinion, the propagandizing the religious orders and guidance by the mullahs is the best way to counter this phenomenon as the people are strongly obedient to religious orders and guidance, I would like to add that the mullahs should try strongly to propagandize whatever the Islam says about the women, they should not show the Islam as tool of violence and contrary to liberty of the women.

The media also can be effective to lower the level of forced marriages through their awareness, the serious action of the government in proper implementation the laws is a way to solve this problem by.

Question: Mrs. Haqnegar, what is your opinion, what would be the most important action to uproot this action?

Answer: I think the implementation of the laws would be the more effective work to do, if the people who perpetrate the forced marriages or those who do violence against the women are prosecuted and laws are openly implemented on them the people would definitely take council  and would not embark upon these actions.

On the other hand the awareness to people of the community and ensuring the security also can have good role in decrement of forced marriages as well as all violence.

Ok dear audients this was our discussion that was presented to you, thanks for joining us , thanks the guests for their participation in the discussion.