Female runaways from home on the rise

A large number of young girls and married women ran away from home, often to marry men of their own choice or to escape forced marriages, in the Rawalpindi district in 2021.

According to data available with The Express Tribune, a total of 810 females ran away from homes in the Rawalpindi district in one year.

The women who ran away from homes were mostly young and out-of-school girls. According to the data, 211 married women also disappeared from their homes and remarried.

A total of 391 women also went to Darul Aman seeking shelter.

After the women fled their homes, their parents filed abduction petitions at various police stations.

Read People with health issues or inactivated vaccine should get Covid booster: WHO

On these petitions and the registered cases, the girls who were raided and recovered by the police presented their marriage certificates in courts and the registered cases were dropped against them.

According to police and court records, the runaway girls aged between 14 to 20 years.

In District Court Rawalpindi, 11 couples got married before going home. Some girls even left copies of their marriage certificates behind before leaving homes. Due to this, a large number of parents did not file cases with the police.

This year, 341 women returned to their parents home or in-laws.

A total of 38 cases of escape from home were reported at Sadiqabad Police Station, 32 at Pirwadhai, Police Station, 28 at Rawat Police Station and 34 at Gujjar Khan Police Station. Five women were reunited with their parents by the Pirwadhai police, two women were handed over to parents after recovery by the Sadiqabad.

According to the data, a total of 210 couples were brought to the police stations after the arrests but later courts dismissed cases against them after women recorded statements regarding the marriage of their choice.

The family court disposed of 164 such cases after recording the statements of the couple.

Talking to The Express Tribune, family law expert Tayyaba Abbasi said that parents need to keep an eye on their children after providing them with mobile and internet facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2021.