Detained or brainwashed?: Court orders shifting of woman to Darul Aman

ISLAMABAD:

A session’s judge on Tuesday sent a student of Jamia Hafsa to Darul Aman with an observation that the seminary administration should refrain from pursuing the matter.

Unmoved by repeated appeals from her parents to return home and a similar and continuous persuasion drive by the judge during the course of the 45-minute hearing, an “emotionally senseless” Uzma, as dubbed by a lawyer representing her father, refused to go back home.

This forced Sessions Judge Nazir Ahmed Gajana to send the girl to Darul Aman for the next one week, giving a chance to the aggrieved family to try to change the girl’s mind.

Representatives of the seminary administration were directed by the judge to refrain from contacting the girl during this period and stop attempting to retain custodianship of the girl against her parent’s will.

Earlier, Uzma’s father Sheikh Mohammad Qayyum sought the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s intervention for the recovery of his daughter from Jamia Hafsa –a women’s seminary affiliated with the controversial Lal Masjid.

Qayyum had alleged that the seminary administration had illegally confined his daughter. The SC has sought a report on the issue from a sessions’ judge.

The court allowed Uzma parents to visit their daughter at any time as long as they seek approval from the court first, while the seminary administration have been barred from meeting her, said Mohammad Haider Imtiaz, the lawyer for Uzma’s father.

During the hearing, Uzma told the judge that she had “reservations” over rejoining her family. The judge then cleared the courtroom and heard Uzma for 15 minutes.

The judge asked Uzma if she feared domestic violence or forced marriage at home, which she said no to.

He also told Uzma that he could be a guarantor if she wanted to marry a man of her choice including someone from Lal Masjid, but Uzma vehemently rejected the suggestion. The judge also asked the three women representing Jamia Hafsa that it seems the seminary had been playing the role of Darul Aman by housing girls who run away from home.

Earlier, Imtiaz, the lawyer for Uzma’s father, contended before the court that there were legal precedents where courts have granted custody of unmarried women to their parents, even though this was contrary to the fundamental law of freedom.

The court, however, did not see the need for forcing her to go home and directed the police take Uzma to Darul Aman and to produce her in court after one week.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2015.