HYDERABAD: Social activists and police officers are acting to prevent girls from marrying Arabs who divorce them within a few days. Sheikh marriages, Arab marriages or `mutta' marriages have increasingly become the modus operandi for the trafficking of young Muslim women, says social activist, Sunita Krrishnan.

Girls in the areas Falaknuma, Talabkatta, Kalapathar, Kishenbagh and Pahadi Sharif in Old City are often given away in marriage to old Arabs who visit Hyderabad for a few days.

Poor Muslim families have fallen prey to Arabs who bribe them with money and promise them to take their girls `bahar' (to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Oman.), said Dr. Krrishnan.

`Break the nexus'

To stop such marriages it is necessary to break the nexus among brokers, guest house owners, unani clinics and qazis, she said.

Brokers help the Arabs conduct the marriages often through the telephone while unani clinics help them increase their potency, she said.

On August 1 this year, two girls -- Farheen Sultana and Henna Sultana -- were married to the same Arab, Abdul Jabbar, who kept them for a single day. Though the parents of these girls were promised Rs. 20,000 each, they were given only Rs. 10,000, said Circle Inspector of the Kalapathar police station, Sadiq Ahmad.

Vocational training

"Once we rescue girls, we try to initiate them into vocational training camps and caution their mothers against giving their daughters in marriage to men abroad," said Additional Commissioner of Police, Co-ordination, Tejdeep Kaur.

The COVA had been requested to take up awareness programmes for these young girls and their mothers, she said. Muslim clergies as a community must also act to prevent these marriages, she added.

Sharing the concern, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, A.K. Khan said qazis should exercise their moral responsibility to stop such marriages. Mr. Khan, who visited the parents of these girls and spoke to investigating officers, said qazis were turning a blind eye to these marriages as they benefited from solemnising them.

Zakat, the system of financial obligation on Muslims, should be used to help those in need so that none is driven to perform such marriages.

Qazis should identify girls of marriageable age, whose parents are poor, and help them get married to respectable men, he said.

Identifying the reasons why families preferred Arab grooms, Ms. Kaur said it is because the latter would send money back unlike the poor local youths.

Educating parents

Parents of the victim girls must be shaken out of their complacency as they felt even if their daughters get divorced, they can marry them again, said Dr. Krrishnan.

In a few cases, these marriages were arranged by stepmothers who struck deals with brokers, Mr. Khan said.

Dr. Krrishnan made the film `Bhagnagar' in collaboration with Rajesh Touchriver wherein Muslim women narrate how they were trapped into marriage. Prajwala, the NGO which Dr. Krrishnan heads, screened this film in slums with the help of NGOs and anganwadi workers.

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