In a rare show of courage, Thatta bride fights for free-will choice

SHC orders for the FIR to be cancelled against her and her husband.

KARACHI:

A young woman from Thatta won a court’s approval after putting on a rare display of courage and confidence while replying to the judge’s questions on the genuineness of her marriage contract.

The unlettered Arbabzadi, who is in her 20s, proved that despite being unschooled, she was fully aware of her rights as a woman. She remained unmoved to her mother’s pleadings and a weeping younger brother asking her to come back. When it got too much, she roared in the corridor and inside the courtroom, telling her family to keep away from her. Advocate General Sindh Abul Fattah Malik, who happened to be in Justice Maqbool Baqar’s courtroom at the time, had to call in policewomen to calm down the petitioner.

Once she felt secure, Arbabzadi calmly waited for her turn. When invited by the court, she answered Justice Imam Bux Baloch’s queries in Sindhi and told the court that no one had abducted her and she married co-petitioner Abdul Qayyum of her own free will. When asked, she said that the FIR lodged by her father, Bachal, was concocted and thus should be quashed.

The judge disposed of the petition and permitted her to live with her husband. It also ordered the Preedy police to provide her an escort to a bus stop for her journey back to Thatta as her lawyer informed the bench that her relatives were all over the court premises and could harm the couple that has been declared karo-kari.

The court ordered the investigation officer to record her statement and submit it to the trial court of the Tando Mohammad Khan judicial magistrate within two days. Her statement will be needed to quash the FIR of abduction that her father registered against her husband, Abdul Qayyum Lashari.

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