Marriage Nasirabad

Though male dominated, Nasirabad district is comparatively an open society. Marriages are arranged, particularly in the rural areas. In D. M. Jamali educated girls may show their willingness or unwillingness for a match. Nevertheless, they remain under the patriarchal set-up where their fates are determined by their fathers, brothers or other male relatives. It is widely observed that in the case of uneducated girls little is asked about the match-making. The women, the girl herself or her female relatives, have no influence. The age for a girl to marry, is from 14 to 18 years. Early age and adolescence marriages are more common in cases of uneducated girls. In areas with the lowest female literacy rate there are more marriages at adolescent age and more cases of girls given in marriage to elder people. Childhood marriages are common in the rural areas.

 

Vulvar (bride-price) is practiced in the area. Money is paid by the groom for a proposal, but the amount is not very big. The girl’s parents or guardians may spend the vulvar on buying dowry for the bride. The payment of vulvar is fixed by the female members at the time a marriage proposal is made. There are no rules about the amount of vulvar. It varies from case to case and situation to situation. It may be paid by the bridegroom, his parents/guardians or relatives. The demand for vulvar is usually raised when a proposal is repeated to the bride's side or the one proposed to is very beautiful; and the proposer is very rich and already married.

 

There is a system of Ata Wata (exchange marriages). The system is much practiced in the lower and middle classes of society. Under this system, a girl is married to a man in exchange for a bride for her brother. The system facilitates marriages against low costs, therefore, poor people prefer it to vulvar.

 

Under the vulvar and Ata Wata system, girls proposed to are left with no choice, and have to bow down their heads for marriages without their consent. After the marriage of their daughters, parents become almost indifferent towards their welfare. They remain at the mercy of their husband and in-laws. It is observed that under an exchange system of marriages, retaliation may be shown by the husband’s side against his wife in case his sister is not happy with his wife's brother. A second marriage on the side may result in marriage break-up, ill treatment of the first wife, or tit for tat in retaliation. Marriages are broken as the result of retaliation.

 

One form of retaliation against the wife may result in Siakari, where the woman is murdered after being accused of adultery with another man. Genuine Siakari is quite rare, but under the disguise of Siakari each year a number of persons, particularly women, are innocently put to death. Those who survive their injuries carry the label of being disdained by society for the rest of their lives. The inculpated victims of Siakari receive little protection from law and society.

 

Siakari literally means adultery. A Siakar is used to refer to a person who is guilty of committing it. The killing of a Siakar is a centuries old norm, still practiced in close tribal societies, where a man and a woman found in an illegal relation are put to death. In Siakari women are more often killed than men. In the first place it is hard for her to escape, as she is already confined to the four-wall boundaries of the house and dependent on male protection. Secondly, once declared a Siakar, she will find asylum nowhere.

 

Persons are decoyed for Siakari. A man may decoy someone by inviting him to his house during night-time and kill him accusing him of having illegal relations with his wife. The motive behind this might be that he wants to get rid of his wife for another marriage or that he owes someone a large amount of money. According to police reports, a man killed his wife as Siakar in retaliation to his father-in-law, who would not allow his daughter the land he registered in her name to protect himself against the land reforms. To slur his father-in-law’s honour, the husband killed his wife.

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