Village Journals
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Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Polygamy = Prostitution
Subject: Human trafficking in the quake's aftermath
in.rediff.com
The Rediff Special/By Mohammad Shehzad
Human trafficking in the quake's aftermath
October 16, 2005
Although the October 8 earthquake is a great human tragedy, for the
human traffickers it is a perfect 'business opportunity'. The mafia has
become active creatively. Human smugglers are collecting information
about children and women who have lost their parents and spouses
respectively. They visit various relief camps, pretend to be the close
relatives of such victims and claim their custody.
I was witness to one such scene. "I don't know them. They are not my
relatives. Please don't send me with them." This was Ayesha Bibi, a
16-year old girl at the Rawalpindi General Hospital. Two men -- Shafiq
and Karim -- wanted to take her with them. According to them, Ayesha was
their niece.
"She is mentally retarded. She would often not recognise her real mother
who has died in the rubble in Muzaffarabad. We are her uncles and have
come to help her," claimed Karim.
Tremors across borders
When asked how they came to know about Ayesha, they said they had seen
her on TV. The hospital, faced with a desperate bed shortage, discharged
her to the man without verification.
A lot of people want to adopt orphan children. Some of them out of
genuine reason, but a majority of them are looking for domestic helpers,
particularly, babysitters.
"I wish I could adopt a teenage girl. She could look after my newborn
baby and live with me. I will provide her reasonably good food, clothing
and shelter. I would be grateful if you could help me in this regard."
This was a so-called social worker in my circle of contacts who had
contacted me on my satellite phone when she got to know that I was going
to Muzaffarabad to cover the earthquake.
When I reminded the lady that she had no shame and instead of helping
wretched people, she was exploiting their plight, she brazenly said: "I
am helping them in one way. By adopting a girl and providing her the job
of babysitter, I will save her from becoming a prostitute!"
The lady was probably not wrong because the mafia of pimps has reached
the remotest villages of Pakistani Kashmir to buy girls for their
brothels. A number of abysmally poor families are selling off their
girls to such pimps who pretend to be noble people who help humanity by
marrying poor and needy women.
In Muzaffarabad, a very pretty young woman who had lost her husband and
three children in the earthquake was open to marrying any reasonable man
of any age who could look after her.
"I am willing to give my 28-year-old widowed daughter-in-law into
wedlock with anyone who could provide her protection," says 65-year old
Zakir Ali, a retired schoolteacher.
The women trade under the cover of marriage is not a bizarre phenomenon
in Pakistan. A friend of mine fell in love with someone and asked his
widower father -- a retired army colonel -- to arrange his marriage. The
father imposed a condition on the son ie he would have to
arrange a bride for him first. The son went to Swat (a city
in North West Frontier Province where brides are sold) and bought his
'step-mother' by paying 25,000 rupees. The father married the girl and
then arranged his son's marriage!
Army doctors are in ideal positions to use their clout to get anyone
children for adoption.
At the Field Hospital in Bagh, I overheard an army doctor telling his
elder brother over the phone that he should not worry.
He should wait for a week and during this period he would find him a
girl for adoption. The doctor had given his brother a week's time to
ensure that no relative claims the custody of the potential child that
he had in mind for adoption.
According to the international law, only infants can be adopted -- not
grown up children.
Islam encourages men to marry needy women. A Muslim man can have four
wives at a time. Unfortunately, Islam is abused and used as a cover by
many of us for our wicked deeds.
Only God knows the intentions of the human beings -- prima facie
'adoption' and 'marriage' seem to be two great covers for human
trafficking!
in.rediff.com
The Rediff Special/By Mohammad Shehzad
Human trafficking in the quake's aftermath
October 16, 2005
Although the October 8 earthquake is a great human tragedy, for the
human traffickers it is a perfect 'business opportunity'. The mafia has
become active creatively. Human smugglers are collecting information
about children and women who have lost their parents and spouses
respectively. They visit various relief camps, pretend to be the close
relatives of such victims and claim their custody.
I was witness to one such scene. "I don't know them. They are not my
relatives. Please don't send me with them." This was Ayesha Bibi, a
16-year old girl at the Rawalpindi General Hospital. Two men -- Shafiq
and Karim -- wanted to take her with them. According to them, Ayesha was
their niece.
"She is mentally retarded. She would often not recognise her real mother
who has died in the rubble in Muzaffarabad. We are her uncles and have
come to help her," claimed Karim.
Tremors across borders
When asked how they came to know about Ayesha, they said they had seen
her on TV. The hospital, faced with a desperate bed shortage, discharged
her to the man without verification.
A lot of people want to adopt orphan children. Some of them out of
genuine reason, but a majority of them are looking for domestic helpers,
particularly, babysitters.
"I wish I could adopt a teenage girl. She could look after my newborn
baby and live with me. I will provide her reasonably good food, clothing
and shelter. I would be grateful if you could help me in this regard."
This was a so-called social worker in my circle of contacts who had
contacted me on my satellite phone when she got to know that I was going
to Muzaffarabad to cover the earthquake.
When I reminded the lady that she had no shame and instead of helping
wretched people, she was exploiting their plight, she brazenly said: "I
am helping them in one way. By adopting a girl and providing her the job
of babysitter, I will save her from becoming a prostitute!"
The lady was probably not wrong because the mafia of pimps has reached
the remotest villages of Pakistani Kashmir to buy girls for their
brothels. A number of abysmally poor families are selling off their
girls to such pimps who pretend to be noble people who help humanity by
marrying poor and needy women.
In Muzaffarabad, a very pretty young woman who had lost her husband and
three children in the earthquake was open to marrying any reasonable man
of any age who could look after her.
"I am willing to give my 28-year-old widowed daughter-in-law into
wedlock with anyone who could provide her protection," says 65-year old
Zakir Ali, a retired schoolteacher.
The women trade under the cover of marriage is not a bizarre phenomenon
in Pakistan. A friend of mine fell in love with someone and asked his
widower father -- a retired army colonel -- to arrange his marriage. The
father imposed a condition on the son ie he would have to
arrange a bride for him first. The son went to Swat (a city
in North West Frontier Province where brides are sold) and bought his
'step-mother' by paying 25,000 rupees. The father married the girl and
then arranged his son's marriage!
Army doctors are in ideal positions to use their clout to get anyone
children for adoption.
At the Field Hospital in Bagh, I overheard an army doctor telling his
elder brother over the phone that he should not worry.
He should wait for a week and during this period he would find him a
girl for adoption. The doctor had given his brother a week's time to
ensure that no relative claims the custody of the potential child that
he had in mind for adoption.
According to the international law, only infants can be adopted -- not
grown up children.
Islam encourages men to marry needy women. A Muslim man can have four
wives at a time. Unfortunately, Islam is abused and used as a cover by
many of us for our wicked deeds.
Only God knows the intentions of the human beings -- prima facie
'adoption' and 'marriage' seem to be two great covers for human
trafficking!
Comments on this journal
-----
I have read verses 4:3, 4:19 and 4:129 and I see God is prescribing polygamy for extreme circumstances with great reluctance for the greater good.
Context of extreme circumstances
- severe drought/famine
- war widows of the enemy, friends and confederates
- anti - Muslim pogroms in Mecca
- forced migration to Medina and Abyssinia
- loss of capital and property
Greater good
-----------------
- future battles within Arabia and beyond
OK maybe not agrarian, maybe any society that has yet to develop a social welfare programme because widows had no viable way to survive back then on their own. You see, widows were shunned by pre-Islamic Arabs because of the 'burden' they brought and superstitious beliefs. Therefore, they became prostitutes so they can eat.
God's reluctance is quite telling. I don't think God is in the business of prescribing something knowing that we men including the Prophet could never be just to any one wife.
What do you see?
-------
About polygamy, it's one thing to disagree with the way polygamy is being practiced today, but it's another thing to claim that the Quran prescribed it only for agrarian tribal societies..which is not the case. Polygamy does have its own guidelines and procedures, but the aforementioned restriction does not exist, nevermind as the sole criterion
However, the polygamists who walk hand in hand with the pimps to the earthquake regions are clueless to that wisdom in the Quran. i.e. polygamy is a practice to be used in dire measures for agrarian tribal societies only.
What they fail to see is that international aid and even the inadequate government aid that should have been there two earthquakes ago disqualifies their presence.