Bride for Sale

By Aamir Saeed –

One woman’s tragic fall: fleeing an unwanted Watta Satta marriage only made matters worse

In a small room of a government shelter-house in Jhang, Mansab Gul sat on a chair, wondering if she could ever live a normal life. She has a harrowing tale to tell: she was forcibly married thirty times, in locations across Pakistan.

Roobi, a Rawalpindi-based brothel-keeper, had been exploiting Mansab’s youth and beauty, marrying her off to men who were sometimes mentally or physically disabled. “One evening Roobi mixed something in my food and filmed me naked. She kept blackmailing me on account of the film that she had saved on a CD,” she recounts.

One summer night four years ago, she left her home in Kabul to escape her arranged marriage with an elderly man, but never expected that this would lead to a more tragic fate. She also goes by the name of Sumera Khan, appears to be illiterate and doesn’t know her age, but appears to be around 20 years old.

She claims to come from an affluent family in Afghanistan. She claims that her father, Gul Mohammad, is a senior civil servant and is currently serving with President Hamid Karzai as a member of his personal staff. She has two siblings: a brother, Ikram, and a sister, Aman. They live in Kabul near Sher Shah Masjid Ittefaq, in a splendid house.

Her family speaks Persian, but she has learned Urdu by watching Indian movies and conversing with one of her aunts, Maryam. Maryam hails from Rawalpindi and Roobi had managed her marriage with one of the paternal uncles of her father in Kabul.

Roobi, along with her agents Asif and Waseem, may have earned millions of rupees by marrying Mansab off in different places, but the girl continues to grope in the dark for a normal life to live.

Recalling her ordeal, Mansab says that her father arranged a watta satta marriage with an elderly man in Kabul. “I had to marry the elderly man, and in return my brother would marry his sister,” she says.

Watta satta is a tribal custom in Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan, where brides are exchanged between two families. Both families must have a daughter and a son and be willing to betroth them to a daughter and son of the other family.

“I told my mother that I didn’t want to marry the elderly man in watta satta, but she refused to help me,” she says, adding that she also shared her thoughts with her aunt, but to no avail.

Mansab Gul says that she was left with no option but to flee the home to avoid the marriage. She furtively collected a few thousand rupees and some gold jewellery, and ran away with no particular destination in mind.

She reached Peshawar after a hectic journey in different vehicles, which lasted two days and took her through Jalalabad and Torkham. The journey was far from easy. When she reached Torkham and wanted to cross the border into Pakistan, the driver of the cab she was in told her she would be unable to cross the border without a valid passport.

“The driver managed my entry into Pakistan for 2,000 rupees,” she recalls, adding that she only knew Roobi in Pakistan, and had acquired her cell number as well. She telephoned Roobi and told her the whole story. Roobi asked her to reach Peshawar, from where she would be taken to her home in Rawalpindi.

Mansab Gul reached Peshawar from Torkham in a Hiace van. She sat in the front seat of the van and paid the fare for two passengers, rather than one, to avoid any hassle. At Peshawar bus terminal, a new model luxury car was waiting for the girl, to take her to Roobi’s home.

“The driver was a Punjabi and he didn’t speak with me the whole way. Roobi constantly remained in touch with me while we were en route to her home in Rawalpindi,” she says, adding she finally reached her destination at 2am.

Mansab says that Roobi lives in a luxury four-room home in Rawalpindi’s Raja Bazar, along with her 13-year-old daughter Muqaddas and two male pimps, Waseem and Asif. The girl told Roobi that she would return to her home in Kabul if her father agreed not to marry her with the elderly man through watta satta.

The next day Roobi telephoned Mansab’s father in Kabul in an attempt to clarify the situation. “Mansab died a day back and we are mourning her death,” the girl’s father lied, indicating a permanent disconnection between him and his daughter. Now, Mansab was at mercy of Roobi, and she had no chance of returning home.

The cunning Roobi took all of Mansab’s jewellery, her money and mobile phone, and gave her some instructions. “She took me to a parlour and gave me a new, appealing look,” Mansab says, adding that the same night, Roobi mixed something in her food and filmed her naked. The next day she took Mansab to Murree along with some other female friends. “They took my photographs, as I was going to be married off with a rich man in the town.”

Apparently, Mansab was also happy to be married, as she wanted to live a normal and happy life with her husband. Using some of the money and jewellery taken from Mansab, Roobi had her married off to a man with physical disabilities.

Mansab, however, was happy, as she says that the family gave her respect and esteem despite the fact that they had bought her from a pimp. After five days, Roobi went to Mansab’s new home and told the family that her cousin was ill; she wanted to take her home in Rawalpindi. On the family’s insistence, Roobi agreed to take Mansab’s new husband along with them as well.

The girl says that after a few hours’ drive, Roobi stopped the car in a bazaar and asked Mansab’s husband to fetch fresh juice for the passengers. “She sped the car as my husband went to the bazaar to bring juices. I felt sorry for him, but Roobi didn’t listen to me.”

It was at this point that the ugly business of marrying Mansab off for money really began. Mansab says that she could not speak out against Roobi because of the film she had made of her naked. She says that Roobi’s home was nothing less than a brothel, with all sorts of customers coming, haggling over rates and taking her away for a few hours, or a whole night.

She has been married off to some 30 men so far, at different rates ranging from one hundred to five hundred thousand rupees. Mansab remembers some of her husbands as “humble and gentle”. She claims that Roobi has developed good relations with Rawalpindi’s police, and therefore remains safe from prosecution.

But, as the old adage goes, whatever goes up must come down. Roobi’s luck changed when she married Mansab off to 70-year-old Zafar in Ahmad Pur Sial, Jhang. As usual, Roobi got in touch with Mansab just three days after the marriage, and planned another escape.

Zafar’s family made her do household work, tend the animals in the barn. Mansab was not used to such hard work and was beaten up by Zafar’s family. To avoid physical beating, Mansab told them that she was not a Pakistani and hailed from Kabul, and that Roobi was not her relative.

Zafar’s family grew angrier and did not allow Mansab to meet Roobi, who was trying to meet her so that they could plan another disappearing act.

Meanwhile, Roobi lodged a complaint with Additional Sessions Judge Ahmad Pur Sial Muhammad Sarfraz Akhtar, claiming that Zafar kidnapped her daughter. At a hearing, the judge expressed serious doubts about Roobi’s true identity, as he recognised her as Punjabi, while, Mansab – alias Sumera Khan – was a Pashtun.

In December of last year, the judge ordered that Mansab be detained in Jhang until the case could be closed. Sensing the seriousness of the situation, Roobi didn’t appear before the court again. Roobi’s lawyer introduced one Sheikh Nadeem Ahmad as Mansab’s maternal uncle, who argued that the woman could be watched over by this mysterious new relative.

The court checked on the antecedents of Sheikh Nadeem from NADRA – the national database authority – and found he was a resident of Kotli Azad Kashmir, with no relation to Roobi or Mansab. The ill-fated Mansab has been living in the shelter-house, Dar-ul-Aman, for the last eight months – with no obvious end in sight.

Owned by the government, the shelter has capacity for 20 women. The superintendent there said that, apart from Mansab Gul, most women staying there were seeking refuge from abusive relationships. Security here is strict: nobody can enter the premises without prior permission from the superintendent.

In the evenings, the women are offered embroidery and stitching classes, and Mansab has taken keen interest in these classes, developing new skills and even learning to stitch new clothes. However, her outlook remains bleak. “If I go back to Afghanistan, my family will kill me,” she says. “And, if I remain here in Pakistan, no one would accept me because of my past.”

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad.