samar
Samar Minallah,
Ethnomedia
(2007 Perdita Huston Activist for Human Rights)
For the past 20 years, Samar Minallah has been advocating for the rights of rural women in Pakistan, first as a freelance journalist and then as an activist documentary filmmaker. Through her organization, Ethnomedia, Samar is effectively advocating against Swara or Vani, a custom throughout Pakistan where young girls and women are given as compensation to end disputes. In this custom, the criminal goes free and an innocent girl pays the price. She designed an outreach media campaign on "Violence Against Women in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan" highlighting the plight of female Afghan refugees and set up a doctor and training services for women and their children living in a jail for women.
She has fought for social change in Pakistan through research, music videos, documentaries, and a weekly television show. She has even persuaded truck and rickshaw owners to paint slogans against Swara, such as "Giving away little girls as compensation is not only inhuman but also un-Islamic" on their vehicles! With Samar's continued efforts, the Pakistan Supreme Court passed in 2006 a benchmark decision seeking to penalize the act of offering and accepting by way of compensation any child, or woman against her free will. She is currently working on a documentary about the stigmatized and socially shunned AID's victims and their families.
ORGANIZATION
Through her organisation called "Ethnomedia", she uses video advocacy to combat Swara, Vanni, Sang Chatti or Irjaai, a custom where young girls and women are given as compensation to end disputes. The Supreme Court of Pakistan heard many cases on the petition filed by Samar Minallah relating to girls who are offered as compensation to end disputes.
For more information, visit www.ethnomedia.pk
submitted nomination
- forthcoming
relevant articles
- Pakistani Filmmaker to attend Young Leaders’ Summit
- Marriages of minor girls in compensation for murder
- Harsher punishment proposed to discourage Vani, Swara
- Sang Chatti: SC orders arrest of MNA
Pakistani Filmmaker to attend Young Leaders’ Summit
The News
29th August 2007
Islamabad
Renowned Pakistani women’s rights activist and documentary film-maker Samar Minallah has been selected from Pakistan as one of the delegates to attend this year’s Asia Society’s Summit scheduled to take in Singapore.
Asia 21 Young Leader’s Program believes that although our future may be uncertain, its contours will be determined by the attitudes, efforts and collaboration of young leaders. The program helps the delegates in better incorporating an active, value based leadership approach to their public lives.
The Asia Pacific community of leaders from across all sectors and from nearly all countries in the Asia Pacific region becomes the network of leaders who come and stay together over years and decades to address shared challenges, overcome difficult crises, and encourage each other to incorporate the values of public service into all that they do. The Asia Society is an international organization dedicated to strengthening relationships and deepening understanding among the peoples of Asia and the United States.
The program in October will bring together 200 young leaders with diverse backgrounds from across Asia and the United States to deliberate on a wide ranging agenda. Together, they will develop imaginative ways to address the Asia-Pacific’s most pressing issues. Each of the delegates is selected from amongst hundreds of nominees because of their record of excellence in their respective fields and commitment to making the world a better place. Last year, the conference was attended by MP Donia Aziz from Pakistan and Member Parliament Malalai Joya from Afghanistan.
Samar Minallah has been selected to represent Pakistan because of her pioneering work in the field of electronic media. Using research, music videos, documentaries, television shows and other popular mediums of communications, she has been advocating against various forms of human rights abuse and by doing so, has effectively brought many difficult issues to the attention of her society and legislators.
A gender rights crusader, Samar has used the electronic media to advocate the rights of rural women and has used it as a tool for social change through her documentaries. Her work on ‘Swara’ broke the silence on the inhuman tribal custom practiced for centuries.
Many benchmark decisions were taken in 2006 by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on each hearing of the petition filed by Samar Minallah against giving of girls as compensation to end disputes.
Marriages of minor girls in compensation for murder: SC orders arrest of MNA, 11 others
By Mohammad Kamran
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of the members of a jirga, including PPP MNA Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, that decided to hand over five minor girls for marriage to a family to compensate for a murder in Jacobabad. Three of the 14 jirga members are already in police custody and the court ordered the arrest of the other 11.
The order came from a five-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which took up anthropologist Samar Minallah’s complaint that five girls, Aamna, 5, and Bashiran, 2, (daughters of Rahmatullah), Shehzadi, 6, and Meerzadi, 2, (daughters of Hafeezullah), and Noor Bano, 3, (daughter of Yar Ali) were given for marriage to the victim’s family as compensation to settle a murder case, in a traditional practice known as Sang Chatti. The bench included Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar and Justice M Javed Buttar.
In June last year, the court had frozen the jirga ruling and ordered the police to submit an inquiry report within two weeks. The district police officer (DPO) of Kashmore was told to conduct an independent inquiry and arrest the guilty, regardless of how influential or powerful they are. On Wednesday, when Kashmore DPO Noor Muhammad informed the court that the police had arrested three members of the jirga - Hafiz Qamaruddin, Yar Ali and Rehmat - the chief justice asked why other powerful members of the jirga were not arrested. “Are you afraid of them?” he asked. The DPO said that he had only recently assumed his office.
The remaining 11 members of the jirga who were also nominated in the FIR are Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Peer Bharchoondi Mian Abdul Khalique, Thull Tehsil Nazim Syed Ali Akbar Banglani, Ghulam Rasool Banglani, Syed Jalal Shah, Raza Muhammad Banglani, Qamaruddin Banglani, Hafiz Banglani, Habib Banglani and Wad Muhammad Nadwani.
The jirga, which was headed by Bijarani, was called to settle a decade-old feud between two rival groups. It decided to offer five minors as compensation and fined both parties Rs 1 million each.
The feud began in 1997 when Miandad Banglani was killed in a shootout between the Hafiz Qamaruddin and Ali Yar Banglani groups over karo kari (honour killing) charges in Kamal Magsi village, Thull tehsil in Jacobabad district. The police registered a case after nine years and that too after the media highlighted the injustice.
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved
Harsher punishment proposed to discourage Vani, Swara
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, July 27: The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) on Friday called for harsher punishment to discourage customs like child marriage, Vani and Swara in which women are given in marriage to settle vendetta.
The customs of Vani and Swara (mostly practised in the interior of Sindh and the NWFP require young girls to marry members of rival clans to resolve disputes) had attracted the attention of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who, while dealing with a number of cases, had provided protection to such women and ordered punishment to people involved in the customs.
Presided over by the chief justice, the LJCP at its first meeting after Justice Iftikhar’s reinstatement to the office of top adjudicator by a 13-member Supreme Court bench, considered a number of laws — Majority Act 1875, Guardian and Wards Act 1890, Dowry and Bridal Gifts Act 1976, Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 — and suggested amendments to them, including enhancement of punishments.
Dealing with the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, the commission recommended making the law more stringent to discourage child marriage and other social evils like Vani and Swara. “The unfortunate practice of giving women in consideration for settling vendetta is most regrettable and should be discouraged,” it said.
The commission recommended six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs25,000 to an adult man who married a minor girl. Those who help or facilitate child marriage, parents who agree to such marriage or those who violate court injunctions in this regard will face the same penalty.
On separating civil and criminal functions of courts, the commission recommended that such functional division should be carried out by chief justices of respective high courts and there was no need for a legislative change in this regard.
It expressed dismay over delay by authorities in considering and implementing the commission’s recommendations, saying its proposals should be given importance. “These law reform proposals are in public interest to improve the legal system and expedite trial proceedings in the courts to ensure prompt and speedy justice to the litigant public.”
The commission examined a discriminatory provision in the Majority Act, 1875, and recommended amendments to fix a uniform majority age of 18 years.
It also examined the Guardian and Wards Act, 1890, and suggested that the mother of a minor be brought at par with the father and when the mother was alive and not unfit, no other guardian should be appointed for her minor child.
The commission also noted the tendency of false, frivolous and vexatious litigation in the society and recommended suitable enhancement of the compensatory costs of Rs100,000 on party involved in frivolous cases by amending Section 250 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
It suggested fixing responsibility on state agencies like police, Federal Investigation Agency, Income Tax or the Narcotics Control Authority if they filed false and frivolous complaints. It suggested making mandatory the award of compensatory costs after a complaint was proved false.
Examining the Dowry and Bridal Gifts Act, 1976, the commission noted that the law did not serve requirements of present day society because it was abused and misused against the interest of women, despite there were certain restrictions on the value of dowry and bridal gifts to the bride.
It suggested involving the civil society for evolving a modern law that was effective and practicable.
The LJCP meeting was also attended by senior Supreme Court judge Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq, Federal Shariat Court Chief Justice Haziqul Khairi, Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice (retd) Amirul Mulk Mengal, law secretary Mansoor Ahmed, National Commission on the Status of Women chairperson Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra, Advocate Nasira Iqbal and LJCP secretary Dr Faqir Hussain.
Sang Chatti: SC orders arrest of MNA
Order issued against Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani for involvement in offering girls in blood feud
Muhammad Bilal
ISLAMABAD: A larger bench comprising five judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday ordered Kashmore police to arrest 11 persons including PPP leader and MNA, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, for involvement in Sang Chatti (offering girls in blood feuds) of five minor girls in two different cases, and produce them in the court on September 3.
Kashmore District Police Officer (DPO) Noor Ahmed appeared before the five-member bench of the apex court and said three accused namely Ahmed-Ullah, Noorud Din and Dilawar Ali had been arrested. He informed the court that search for other 11 accused including Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and Jacobabad Nazim Akbar Banglani was going on.
He said at the jirga, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Pir of Chuwandi Abdul Khaliq, Tehsil Nazim Halloo Mir Akbar Khan Banglani, Dad Muhammad, Syed Jalal Shah, Hafiz Abdul Jalil Bijarani, Ghulam Raza Banglani and Yar Ali were present when it decided to give the girls in Snag Chatti.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Raza Mohammad Khan, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar and Justice M Javed Buttar directed the DPO to ensure arrest of all accused by September 3, when the court would hold the next hearing.
In June 2006, the Supreme Court had ordered registration of a case regarding a jirga that took the decision about three girls under an oppressive custom known as Sang Chatti in Sindh. The jirga decision regarding Tasleema (3), Farzana (4) and Naseera Solangi (6) was yet to be implemented by the tribal council when the court took notice and ordered legal proceedings against those involved.
During the proceedings Wednesday, Justice Javed Iqbal observed that police arrest the weak quickly but avoid action against influential persons. He told the Kashmore DPO that no matter how influential an accused was the police should do its duty or the court could ask for assigning the task to someone else.
Samar Minallah, an anthropologist and social worker, also appeared before the court along with the minor girls and their parents. She told the court that the social evil of Sang Chatti was a common occurrence in Sindh and those who dared to resist jirga order were killed.
Samar said the family of the three minor girls were living in a tent and requested security for them. The court directed the police to provide security to the family.
The bench also took up incident in which two minor girls namely Khatoon and Naheed were forcibly given in marriage for a compromise between two families in 1982 in Mianwali. Now grown up, the girls were not willing to marry one Mohammad Zaman. The court directed Mohammad Zaman, who was present in the courtroom, to refrain from forcing the girls to marry him against their will.
The court also directed DPO Mianwali that if Mohammad Zaman did not comply with the order, then he should be arrested and action taken against him according to the law.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in his remarks, said: "We will not allow anybody to do wrong even if he is powerful and influential." He said using girls for Vani, Sawara and Sang Chatti in dispute settlements was a curse and a bad custom which should be discouraged at all.
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