A man has been booked in Peshawar over the illegal practice of forced marriage called ‘ghag’. It taken one man from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa almost a decade to have the custom outlawed.
Police arrested three men in Peshawar for setting the wedding date and sending out invitation cards without the woman’s consent. The marriage plans were entirely one-sided as the bride and her family had not consented.
“Ghag is an old customary practice where a man forcibly demands or claims the hand of a woman without her or her parent’s permission by making an open declaration.”
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Geo News reported that the Hayatabad police registered a first information report on the request of a man named, Gul Wali the father of the man making the ghag claim.
According to Gul Wali, his son Humayun, was recently divorced. After the marriage ended, Humayun’s ex-wife’s family began pressuring Wali to marry their former daughter-in-law to Wali’s second son. When Wali refused to marry his son Humayun’s ex-wife to his other son, Humayun’s ex-brother-in-law forcefully set a marriage date with Gul Wali’s daughter.
The brother of the ex-wife fixed a marriage date with Wali’s daughter and even distributed invitation cards without asking her or her parents for permission.
Gul Wali told the police how the distribution of wedding cards had caused him and his family humiliation among their community.
The men have been booked under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Ghag Act, 2013. Since the practice of ‘ghag’ is outlawed, these men can face up to seven years imprisonment under the law.
Following the registration of the FIR, the Hayatabad police arrested the three suspects.
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