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Islam Poor Muslim Girls In Hyderabad Are Cheated By Arab Sheikhs… A Social Problem

kds1980

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POOR MUSLIM GIRLS IN HYDERABAD ARE CHEATED BY ARAB SHEIKHS… A SOCIAL PROBLEM



Prof Dr Colonel ( retired) K Prabhakar Rao

Poverty is very frightening indeed. It has no bounds and encircles all religions and communities. It has seriously affected communities irrespective of religions with respect to marriages of girls. In this respect the Muslim community in India has received greater attention by the media than others. Hyderabad as usual has been always in the news for adverse activities. This is probably due to the high strength of Muslims in the twin cities who are greatly concentrated in the old city which is their citadel. The Old city has been the nerve center for Muslims for the last many centuries and they are more concentrated in this walled city (Walls no more exist now although at some places dilapidated walls and fort gates are still there giving an antiquated look). Although there are rich Muslims in the old city, their strength is much less and poor families are sizeable and countless(1)

Partition of India in 1947 has adversely affected Muslims who remained in India after voting for creation of Pakistan based on religion. An air of mistrust has developed between the communities and Muslims have withdrawn from the main stream. Police action on Hyderabad in 1948 added fuel to the fire. The ruling King Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur (Brave), Fatehjung (Victor of battles) Nizam ul mulk Asifjah 7 was deposed after the military operation (Called Police action) by Indian union forces in September 1948. Nizam tried his best to remain independent and toed the line of Pakistan. Kasim Razvi the self styled Field Marshal of Razakar (Volunteers) forces misled the Nizam and the ruler became the puppet in his hands and fully abetted their gruesome activities. The Razakars resorted to the most atrocious crimes on the Hindu population that can not be even penned. They killed, maimed, raped women in mass, burnt houses, looted houses and trains in Hyderabad state and the Nizam’s Government abetted and boosted his actions by using police and military troops. (2). Although Razakars were disbanded later after deposing the king, most of them merged in society while many were killed in action.

The local Muslims suffered consequently from inferiority complexes in subsequent years and withdrew from society. Educationally they remained backward and education in Madrasa still remained the priority. Urdu had to be learnt to keep their identity and they kept away from modern education. (This is however changing of late).Most of the road side low paid jobs such as welders, Car dent repairers, painters, seat repair mechanics, lathe machine workshop owners, Mechanics, auto drivers, Tonga wallahs (Drivers of horse drawn two wheel carts in bye gone days), Car drivers, plumbers, tin smiths, tire and tube repairers, air inflators for car tires, lock smiths, Rickshaw ( Three wheel cycle carts) pullers, Cycle repairers, Motor cycle mechanics, petty hawkers, scrap dealers, Push car vendors comprise of Muslims who are very poor and uneducated. Added to the misery, multiple marriages as sanctioned by the holy text resulting in a high number of children (Family planning was never resorted to) complicated the social problem. The problem has become acute with no solution. As children grew, problems became more intensive and marrying them off became a night mare to the poor parents.

The Muslim society in India has been also influenced by Hindu customs and practices due to their coexistence for centuries. The evil of the dowry system that plagues Hindu society has also influenced Islam in India and dowry system has also become part of Muslim society in India. This has become further burden to poor parents in Hyderabad. With the fall of Nizam, the air of superiority among them also vanished and stark naked truths dawned in front of them. The local minority leadership resorted to more of politicking with a view on vote bank and did less to reduce their suffering. Religious passions were stoked by them and divisions further widened in the city and state (3).

Arab sheikhs from alien lands have surely exploited the situation and the middle men made money in the process. There are always sharks that make hay while the sun shines. The burden of getting the daughters married off forced the poor parents in to this direction and they fell prey to the lusty old shaggy Arabs who found the old city of Hyderabad as a golden mine for helpless girls.

The prevailing dowry system in Muslim society has added to the woes and poor parents have become helpless. Instead of paying to the bride groom, the parents receive money in exchange for giving the girl in marriage. Some call it selling the girl for money. The entire process is well organized in Hyderabad and it is well entrenched in society. The needs and helplessness of the poor parents are known to the locals and middle men who make contact with parents and exploit them. The Sheikhs who arrive in the city stay in local hotels and hunt for girls and soon are contacted by the middle men and a deal is struck. Most of the time a paltry sum is paid to the parents and Nikah is arranged. The Kazi (The Muslim priest) conducts the marriage and documents are prepared. Many times the girl’s age is altered and fake documents showing legal/acceptable age are prepared. Thus they try to escape from law.

Parents are happy that the girl is married off to a wealthy sheikh but tragedy awaits them soon. The old Sheikh fit to be a father or grand father to the girl consummates the marriage in some hotel and satisfies his lust. It is also not known how many of these old crooks from Arab lands suffer from HIV and other venereal ailments. In the darkness of night they probably pass on the ailments to the unsuspecting brides. There are instances when girls below 13 years are married off to Sheikhs as old as 70 years. However on documents age is shown correct as per provisions. Tragedy unveils on the families when they find that the Sheikh has disappeared all of a sudden leaving the girl to winds. In a recent case that came to light, an impoverished Muslim family married off their daughter to an Arab Sheikh for a meager amount of Rs. 5000 ( US $100), offered through a broker.

“He gave Rs. 5000, but it was all taken by the broker. My mother didn’t get anything. I married him willfully, even though he was 50 years old,” said a girl. Her dreams are all shattered as she has been abandoned by him (4).

There would be incidents when the girl becomes pregnant subsequently and there is no trace of the Sheikh who has vanished never to return. Earlier the sheikhs used to take the brides to their countries and invariably the girls suffered as maid servants and subjected to untold miseries, but that stopped when the Gulf nations restricted their citizens from bringing home a foreign bride unless they took prior permission from the authorities. As a result, instances of Arabs flocking to Hyderabad for a young bride continue.

The abandoned girl becomes a further burden to the parents. Such incidents are innumerable and their state is pathetic. Police has been keeping watch in these developments. But the social problem could not be eradicated. Kazis who perform Nikha are escaping the law owing to the provisions of scriptures. This has been a serious social problem in the poor Muslim families in Hyderabad and this can be eradicated only by better education and social unpliftmnet of the poor and family planning that has been a taboo among Muslims. The provisions in the scriptures are misused by unscrupulous elements and poverty abetted by lust has resulted in the most difficult situation among poor Muslims in the state. Although wide publicity was given to such incidents in the past the situation has not improved and the girls continue to suffer mocking at the society.
 

spnadmin

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kds ji

Are there any journal or news articles that have followed one or two of these girls? What happens then to them in a year or 2 or 3 once they are abandoned?
 

kds1980

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kds ji

Are there any journal or news articles that have followed one or two of these girls? What happens then to them in a year or 2 or 3 once they are abandoned?

Voices Unabridged - The E-Magazine on Women and Human Rights Worldwide - India - Hyderabad’s International Bride Bazaar

Hyderabad’s International Bride Bazaar
by Anita Katyal, 04/18/07

Fifteen years ago, Ameena, an 11-year-old Muslim girl from the southern city of Hyderabad was married off to a 70-year-old resident of Sharjah. As the sobbing child was flying off to her new home in the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, an alert air hostess rescued her.

It was only when Ameena's heartrending story hit the headlines that the entire nation became aware of how impoverished Muslim families in Hyderabad, lured by money, were regularly marrying off their minor girls to much older Arab men.

Shocked by this incident, there was a temporary crackdown. Authorities framed strict rules to guard against any more children like Ameena being subjected to similar exploitation and sexual abuse.

But once the dust had settled and Ameena's story became a distant memory, it was business as usual. Hyderabad's old city, home to its large Muslim population, regained its reputation as the international bride bazaar.

"The practice of old Arab men flocking to Hyderabad for young brides, or “Sheikh” marriages as they are called, is still rampant but these generally go undetected as nobody likes to talk about it," says Dr. Sunita Krishnan, who heads Prajwala, a Hyderabad-based anti human-trafficking NGO.

Sometimes stray cases do come to light, but most such marriages go undetected. Last year, there was a replay of the Ameena case when a minor Muslim girl named Munni was married off by her physically handicapped father to 80-year-old Mohammed Bin Hasan Bin Ali Balushi from Oman for a paltry 10,000 (approx 220 US dollars). Fortunately for the young girl, somebody tipped off the police and the Sheikh, along with his local contacts, was arrested. In another shocking incident, middle-aged Al Rahama Ismail Mirza Abdul Jabbar from the United Arab Emirates, married two young girls in one sitting. While the girls managed to escape, the Arab sheikh fled the country.

According to Dr. Krishnan, Hyderabad has an ancient association with the Middle Eastern countries as the Nizams, the city's ancient Muslim rulers, had recruited Arabs in their army to guard their treasures.

Over the years, the city of Nizams has emerged as the preferred destination of Arabs looking for young brides given the large and distinct Muslim population here. An estimated 300 Arab men come to Hyderabad every year on the pretext of medical treatment or tourism but are actually on the lookout for young girls.

Although there is no firm figure available, Hyderabad police believe that at least 35 such marriages take place every month. In most cases, the marriages are a temporary affair, lasting no more than a week, after which the young girls are abandoned or divorced. The social and religious acceptance of "talaq" or divorce has made it easier for these visiting Sheikhs to enter into such short-term contract marriages that allow them to have sex with young virgins. In cases when the girl does leave home, ostensibly to live with her husband in a foreign land, the "bride" either ends up working as a maid or is pushed into prostitution.

A film taken with a hidden camera a few years ago had captured how the prospective brides are packed in a small room, virtually resembling a brothel, and then paraded before the Arab sheikhs who even lift their veils to inspect them closely.

"This is nothing but trafficking under the garb of marriage," says Ranjana Kumari, who heads the Delhi-based NGO, Centre for Social Research. Kumari believes that excruciating poverty and the pressure to get their daughters married drives these families to take such an extreme step.

Dr. Krishnan says after some Gulf countries like Oman and Saudi Arabia made it mandatory for their citizens to get a license if they wish to marry outside the country, a new trend has emerged. These days, the Arabs do not always come in person but operate through brokers or middlemen who approach poor families on their behalf with offers of money and marriage. The "nikah" ceremony is conducted on the telephone. The girls are then trafficked out of the country and sometimes even land up in brothels in another Indian city. Dr. Krishnan says her organization had rescued one such young girl from a red light area in Pune city while her gullible parents believed she was happily married since they had received a cassette from her saying she was well.

Despite this ongoing practice, social activists like Dr. Krishnan find they are not able to do much in either detecting these cases or creating awareness about this problem since this issue has acquired strong communal and religious overtones. She recalls how the Muslim clergy ran a virtual campaign against her organization when it screened a short film in which some of the rescued girls recounted their experiences. "The response was shocking. We were told that a non-Muslim had no business to interfere in the internal affairs of the community," recalls Dr. Krishnan.

Above all, the whole system operates through a well-oiled network involving travel agents, hotel owners, the middlemen and the “qazi” or the cleric who marries off these minor girls. "There are too many people who have a stake in this. It is difficult to break this nexus," she says, adding that several women's groups have been trying to do so without much success.
 

spnadmin

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kds ji

Thanks for finding more information on this subject. It is depressing -- think how long it has been going on and how many girls have and will be treated so badly. In the end we can be so helpless sometimes.:(
 

kds1980

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Apr 3, 2005
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kds ji

Thanks for finding more information on this subject. It is depressing -- think how long it has been going on and how many girls have and will be treated so badly. In the end we can be so helpless sometimes.:(

I blame women rights actvists for this.In India they several times criticised and successfully eradicated practice's which are against women in Hindu society.But in the case of Islam they and Govt just keep their mouth shut.Under sharia in India we have a law that by saying triple talaq a man can divorce his wife.Moreover he only has to pay 3 months maintainace unlike non muslims who have to pay to their wives for their entire life.The only
people that have raised voice against this is from BJP but again they are blamed to be communal which could be true.

Women right activists of India and world should take firm steps against these type of problems in muslim societies
 

spnadmin

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kds ji

You are making a good point -- if the women's movement stands behind what it believes then it should take a few risks. I read a few months back the story about the woman who was ordered to leave her husband after he committed incest with his daughter was being covered. The background on this was that according to the Indian constitution family law for Muslims is left to local Muslim courts. Women's rights activists demonstrated. But it seemed that it did not work. Are you saying that the womens' movement could do more to lobby to have a change in the constitution? It seems that some groups are left to their own devices and things like this happen as a result.
 

kds1980

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But it seemed that it did not work. Are you saying that the womens' movement could do more to lobby to have a change in the constitution? It seems that some groups are left to their own devices and things like this happen as a result.

Change in constituition is very difficuilt in India.Muslims are now very big and powerful votebank.The first thing they should do is to actively crticise and help these type of muslim girls and women irrespective of what muslim scholars say.One of the very famous case that led to communalisation of Indian politics is shah bano case.

Shah Bano case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It created mayhem at that time and gave oppurtunity for rise of communal poltics
 

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