When Women Are Property: Husband Sells Wife's Kidney to Buy Tractor and Girl "Lost" in Poker Game

Today, the Daily Times-Leading News Resource of Pakistan reports that in Multan a husband sold his wife's kidney without her permission and used the proceeds to purchase a farm tractor. Yesterday, Reuters reported that a teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative as payment.

While the stories are different, they are also the same. That is, they are stories about women who are the property of their husbands and fathers.

The wife of the farmer from Bahawalpur has registered a case against her husband for selling her kidney and using the money to buy a tractor. According to the Daily Times--

District Police Officer (DPO) Bahawlapur Arif Nawaz said that police had registered a case against farmer Shakeel Ahmed following the written complaint of his wife, Safia, "in the light of a medical report indicating that (her) husband had unlawfully sold one of her kidneys".

Safia told authorities that her husband Shakeel beat her when she was pregnant, causing her to suffer a miscarriage. During the subsequent surgical procedure that her husband took her to at Bahawal Victoria Hospital, under the pretext of seeking medical treatment for her condition, she has accused Bahawal Victoria Hospital doctors of removing one of her kidneys without her knowledge or consent at the request of her husband.

The Daily Times reports--

Safia said that she only came to know about her ordeal when she later contracted a urinary tract infection and sought medical treatment. She also pointed out that that her husband then confessed what had happened, admitting that he had sold her kidney and used the money from the transaction to buy a tractor.

Noshera Jadeed police said that they had registered a case against Ahmed, adding that investigations into the alleged crime were still continuing.

In Hyderabad, the mother of 17-year-old Rasheeda--the girl was put up as collateral when she was two years old for her father's gambling debt of 10,000 rupees ($151) to fellow Baluchistan province tribesman Lal Haider--said she has filed applications with the police and a local councilor asking them to prevent Haider, age 45, from taking the teenaged girl to his home. "My husband didn't have money to pay, and instead he told Lal Haider that he could take Rasheeda when she grows up," the mother said. The mother reports that even though the poker debt was paid to Lal Haider a year ago, he still insists they give him their 17-year-old daughter Rasheeda in keeping with tribal customs.

Per the Reuter's story--

Khalid Rajput, a local councilor dealing with the case, said the decision that Rasheeda should be handed over to Haider was taken late last week at a tribal council meeting.

"We know some tribal elders from Baluchistan came for the meeting in which the girl's family was told to give her as per their customs," he said.

Does that custom include Surah 4:34 from the Quran? (About 97 percent of Pakistan's population is Muslim.) "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them".

Maybe the 45-year-old Haider could be persuaded to take a tractor instead of the girl.

Sources:

Case against husband for selling wife's kidney, The Daily Times, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C02%5C27%5Cstory_27-2-2007_pg7_4

Girl lost in poker game pleads for help, Reuters, http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2007-02-26T153130Z_01_ISL100092_RTRUKOC_0_US-PAKISTAN-GIRL.xml&src=rss&rpc=22