Arrest of Father Who Was Selling His Daughters

The police in Pakistan have arrested a man who was supposed to sell his daughter for prostitution. This case highlights the issue of abuse and exploitation of women and children in parts of Pakistani society. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has interviewed Noushin, a twelve-year-old girl who was to be the victim, and her brother. Noushin and her brother say that Ijtihad Khan, from the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, has previously sold two other daughters and his wife into slavery and even worse. The amounts this man received in past cases for selling his daughters were several hundred dollars or a travel visa to Saudi Arabia. In the recent case, he was supposed to receive about $1,900 for selling his daughter Noushin, which is equivalent to the annual salary of a simple worker in Pakistan. Ijtihad Khan, who is now in police custody, has confessed to having sold two of his daughters in the past but insists that he hoped to hand over Noushin to 'God's will.' The Pakistani government has been trying to combat the trafficking and sale of minors, especially girls, and the longstanding issue of forced marriages of young girls through a public campaign. However, Pakistani girls and women continue to suffer from abuse and various forms of exploitation. The government's efforts to increase penalties for offenders have faced strong resistance from religious groups and conservatives. The police arrested Noushin's father on October 26 at his home in a village on the outskirts of Peshawar. Police officials say that Ijtihad Khan was supposed to sell his daughter through an intermediary to two men from Punjab province, hundreds of kilometers away from Peshawar. The police have charged him with planning to sell a minor with the intent to exploit her for prostitution. Two buyers and an intermediary, reportedly a seventy-year-old woman, have also been arrested on charges of buying a minor for prostitution. If convicted, under Pakistan's penal laws, each of the accused could face up to 25 years in prison. Noushin, who is under police protection with her brother, told Radio Mashaal, the Pakistan section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, that her father had previously sold her mother and two sisters. Noushin said, 'I have already lost my mother and two sisters, and now my father intended to sell me to two Punjabi men. I don't know what they would do to me.' In Pakistan, the fate of young girls sold by their families often leads to servitude, prostitution, or forced marriages to wealthy men who typically have multiple wives. According to Pakistani law, marrying off young girls is prohibited. The legal marriage age for girls is 16 and for boys is 18; however, in a country where religious and tribal traditions are still very strong, families marry off their daughters at any age they wish, disregarding the law. Noushin says she and her brother learned of their father's intention to sell her and reported it to the police. Rizwanullah, Noushin's brother, says, 'My father first sold my mother and then my two sisters when they were very young. He claims he has no news of them and doesn't know where they are. My sister Noushin told me that our father intended to sell her too. We ran away and went to our aunt's house.' When their father went to bring Noushin back, Rizwanullah informed the police. In Pakistan, there are no reliable statistics on child marriages; very few cases are reported to the police, and the government does not record or collect statistics on these cases. However, according to a UNICEF report in 2014, at least 7% of Pakistani girls under the age of 15 are forced into marriage. According to statistics from the charity Save the Children, over 40% of Pakistani girls under the age of 18 are married, and 8% of girls married in their teens give birth between the ages of 15 and 19. Ijtihad Khan, Noushin's father, admits to having sold two other daughters before and says, 'I sold my eldest daughter through an intermediary named Khatoon (the seventy-year-old woman who was also the intermediary in this recent case) for about $300; and my other daughter named Goldasteh was given to her future husband in exchange for a visa.' He says this visa was for Saudi Arabia, and he returned to Pakistan after working there for two years. Khatoon, the intermediary, has been accused of arranging the sale of Noushin and receiving money from this transaction. However, she swears by the Quran that she had proposed Noushin for marriage to her grandson, and Noushin's father had agreed. In the deeply religious and backward areas of Pakistan, distinguishing between a traditional marriage arranged by two families and the transaction of young girls is very difficult. In rural and underdeveloped areas of the country, even marrying off girls is used as a way to resolve disputes between two families or tribes. This ancient tradition is particularly common in Pashtun areas and tribal regions of Punjab and Balochistan.