Runaway afghan couple: Maryam’s brother echoes claims of prior marriage

Demands PHC conduct DNA tests of her alleged ‘nieces’ to settle the matter.

PESHAWAR:

Following statements by the runaway Afghan woman Mariyam Marjman Molouda’s alleged in-laws, her own family seems to have joined their chorus claiming she is married to her deceased sister’s husband.

Addressing jounalists at the Peshawar Press Club (PPC) on Monday, Fawad, a man claiming to be Mariyam’s brother, reiterated claims that her marriage to her sister’s husband, Abdul Rehman, was solemnised in 2006. Fawad, who was accompanied by Mariyam’s alleged stepson Javed, demanded the Peshawar High Court (PHC) conduct DNA tests of the two girls who accompanied her to Pakistan to settle matter.

Mariyam has maintained the two girls - two-year old Husna and three-year old Sana - are the daughters of her late sister, Marzia, and Abdul Rehman. The latter’s family meanwhile claims Mariyam is the girls’ real mother.

According to details known so far from Mariyam and Hewad, both Afghan nationals fled Kabul in May after learning that the former’s parents intended to marry her off to Abdul Rehman. The couple says Mariyam was living with Rehman’s family following Marzia’s death since the former suffered from paralysis. The two took refuge with a friend of Hewad in Abbottabad and subsequently married each other.

The two were located by Rehman’s family on July 14 and allegedly received death threats.

“We would prefer to die here rather than going back to Afghanistan,” maintained Hewad.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2012.