‘Into A Volcano’: Marriage by Choice: A Right or a Crime?

December 9, 2014

On December 8^th, 2014, the American University of Central Asia hosted Ms. Rabia Daudpota, a visiting research scholar and attorney from Karachi, Pakistan who gave a special presentation entitled “Marriage by Choice: A Right or a Crime?” The topic centered around parallels between the treatment of women in Pakistan through honor killings, and Kyrgyzstan through bride kidnapping.

Organized by Duane Lacey, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, the lecture was designed to give the attendees as well as his students a topic that connected and blurred the line between law and philosophy to illustrate the long-standing relationship between the two subjects.

Ms. Daudpota, who works as an Assistant Manager in the legal department of Toyota Indus Motors, introduced the topic through some revealing and sobering statistics. “In South Asia there are 900 honor killings annually, girls as young as 13 are being bride-kidnapped here, in Africa 2 girls a day are killed, and 40-70% of women murder victims are murdered by their partners in Canada and the United States,” she stated.

 She shared an anecdote to illustrate the severity of the issue of honor killings. A girl in Pakistan wanted to marry her love, but told she had to marry another man by her family. She ran away with her love, but came back due to a false kidnapping claim by her family to the court. When she returned, her family stoned her to death. “The media and others call it honor killing, but I call it an execution,” she said.

 There were several questions from the attendees, including one from a UN Women representative and a U.S. student that revolved around just what the motivations are for the men in bride kidnapping. One of the answers given was economic woes and the high expensive of marriage ceremonies and costs here. Ms. Daudpota then asked the men in the audience how they would approach a woman they wanted to marry. “Begging,” joked Mr. Lacey and another student.

We asked Ms. Daudpota just how the students could act. “Raise awareness, not just among students but among the whole community. Especially parents and the older generation,” she advised. One attendee mentioned that he believed there must be a “strand of social and cultural thought process” as a foundation for these issues, and so it is crucial for persons to take action to change those processes.

Thank you to Ms. Rabia Daudpota for taking the time to present her ideas to the AUCA community on such an important issue, and we wish her luck with her future fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan.

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