Girl Offered as Bride to Pay Poker Debt

[Harvey]

KARACHI, Pakistan (Feb. 27) - Police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders, accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt, officials said Tuesday.

In the latest case highlighting how conservative customs threaten women's rights in Pakistan, Nooran Umrani alleges that, despite paying off her late husband's debt of $165, she was threatened with harm if she failed to hand over her daughter, Rasheeda.

The 17-year-old was to be surrendered as a bride for the son of Lal Haider, the man who won the card game years before, Umrani told reporters on Monday in Hyderabad, 100 miles northeast of Karachi.

Umrani said her husband was a gambler who ran up the debt at a poker game when Rasheeda was 1 year old. He promised Haider that he would get Rasheeda in lieu of payment when she grew up, the mother said.

[Hunger Dog]

Gotta love those primitive countries.

[oral]

Teenage Girl Offered to Settle a 16-Year Old Poker Debt

By Ayanna Guyhto

The son of Lal Haider, a Pakistani man, is demanding that a nearly two decades old poker debt is paid. But there is a problem with what he claims he is owed: 17-year old Rasheeda Umrani, as a bride. The women of Pakistan have been infamously overlooked in terms of their rights. This case would prove to be no different...

THE GAME

When Rasheeda was a one year-old, her father was a chronic gambler, who during a poker game several years ago, offered his then infant daughter as a bride when she grew up. This was to be "paid" in exchange for the debt that he amassed during his jaunts. Rasheeda's mother, Nooran Umrani, whose husband is now deceased, claims that a group of elders from a tribe in the Baluchistan province approached her in January regarding the girl. They explained to her that according to tribal traditions, Rasheeda was required to marry Lal Haider's son, Abdul Ghani, who is 23. Nooran Umrani also claims that although she had already satisfied her late husband's debt --- a mere $165, the group of elders threatened harm to her if she did not surrender to their request.