Family court dissolves marriage

LAHORE: A family judge on Tuesday dissolved the marriage of a 16-year old girl, which was solemnised when she was three.

Shazia*, a resident of Hajveri Town, had filed a suit in Ahsan Raza’s court on December 30, 2010.

She told the court that her mother had married her, while she was three, to Daraz Umar*. “It’s my mother’s thumb prints on the nikkah nama, not mine,” she told the court.

During the hearing, she submitted that her rukhsati had taken place eight months ago, in 2010. “My husband, who is in his 30s now, started beating me without any reason soon after my rukhsati. I then contacted my relatives who told my husband to change his behaviour.

But he refused to do so,” She said that her husband had kicked her out from his house in November 2010.  Shazia then moved to Lahore and now works as a house maid. She told the court that she hated her husband “because he was not a good man”. She submitted that she had asked her husband several times to divorce her but he hadn’t. She prayed the court that a decree of dissolution of nikkah be issued. The judge ordered dissolution of the marriage on Tuesday.

Talking to The Express Tribune Shazia alleged that her mother had sold her to Umar, “My mother is a greedy woman.” When asked how she knew that her mother had sold her, she replied, “My mother demanded money from my husband at the time of my rukhsati.”

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the girl

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2011.