Wealthy tourists from Arab and African countries can still buy ‘temporary wives’ from the poverty ridden families of old city in Hyderabad.
Despite women’s rights organisations and law enforcement bodies’ efforts to curb the sham marriages, penury forces parents to conduct such contract marriages, though secretly.
A month ago, a 45-year-old Sudan national, who was involved in a sham marriage in Moghalpura, was arrested by police.
Brokers and qazis, who earn high revenue from such marriages, are still thriving in pockets of the city.
Women’s rights activists say that since the law has become strict on sham marriages, all such activities are now covertly done, due to which many incidents go. The marriage is done secretly, and the girl taken by the tourist to a hotel for a week or so, and later dropped back home secretly’ Jameela Nishat, organiser of Shaheen (a women’s rights movement based in Hyderabad) said.
What forces parents to conduct sham marriages?
All victims of sham marriages belong to the poor families. “Tourists offer enough money as meher and attract the parents. There is even a saying in a few areas that ‘If you want to become rich overnight, marry your daughter to an old Arab’, said Jameela, who has recorded the experience of 35 victims.
Wealthy tourists and their muses: Many tourists get access to brokers who make the affair possible in a matter of few days. “Tourists look for young virgins below the age of eighteen years. The prize for a girl is according to her beauty.” a woman rights activist said. “Usually they come in the Ramzan season, when things are strict in their country. August and September are the months when increasing number marriages take place,” a woman activist said.
The agonised victims: “The marriages last for short periods, sometimes as short as a single night. After that, the victims are officially divorced or abandoned. The victims are left wretched. Some may have sexual diseases, some affected with mental illness, and some are forced into prostitution,” said Shaheena Sultana, a women’s right activist from the old city said.
Courtesy: Deccanchronicle