Pakistan Girl Pressured To Wed In Payment for Poker Debt
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KARACHI, Pakistan — Police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders, accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt, officials said yesterday.
In the latest case highlighting how conservative customs threaten women’s rights in Pakistan, Nooran Umrani alleges that, despite paying off her late husband’s debt of $165, she was threatened with harm if she failed to hand over her daughter, Rasheeda.
The 17-year-old was to be surrendered as a bride for the son of Lal Haider, Ms. Umrani told reporters on Monday in Hyderabad.
Ms. Umrani said her husband was a gambler who ran up the debt at a poker game when Rasheeda was 1 year old. He promised Mr. Haider that he would get Rasheeda in lieu of payment when she grew up, the mother said.
Koral Shah, a Hyderabad police officer, said both families belong to the Umrani tribe of Pakistan’s impoverished Baluchistan province.
He said a group of elders from the tribe came to Hyderabad in January to investigate the case and had ruled that, under tribal custom, the girl should be married to Mr. Haider’s 23-year-old son, Abdul Ghani. Police want to arrest the elders, he said.
Police said yesterday that the mother and daughter were in their protection and that an investigation was opened against Mr. Haider, his son, and eight others.
