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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2017)
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER ASIA / PACIFIC January 16, 2017 In a Pakistan family, deal is made, a girl is given as bride By Kathy Gannon The Associated Press AMPUR, Pakistan — Mohammad Ramzan can neither hear nor speak, and he has a childlike mind. But he knew his wife, Saima, was too young when she was given to him as a bride. The 36-year-old Ramzan smiles, eager to please, as he uses his fingers to count out her age when they married. One, two, three … until 13, and then he stops and looks at her, points and nods several times. The girl’s father, Wazir Ahmed, says she was 14, not 13, but her age was beside the point. It mattered only that she had reached puberty when he arranged her marriage as an exchange: his daughter for Ramzan’s sister, whom he wanted to take as a second wife. His first wife, Saima’s mother, had given him only daughters, and he hoped his second wife would give him a son. But Sabeel wouldn’t marry him until her brother had a wife to care for him. She would be a bride in exchange for a bride. “We gave a girl in this family for a girl in their family,” Ahmed says. “That is our right.” In deeply conservative regions such as this one in the south of Punjab province, the tribal practice of exchanging girls between families is so entrenched, it even has its own name in Urdu: Watta Satta, which means give and take. A girl may be given away to pay a debt or settle a dispute between feuding families. She might be married to a cousin to keep her dowry in the family or, as in this case, married for the prospect of a male heir. Many believe their Islamic religion instructs fathers to marry off their daughters at puberty. “If it is not done, our society thinks parents have not fulfilled their religious obligation,” says Faisal Tangwani, region- al coordinator for the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in nearby Multan. Ahmed sees the hand of god in his daughter’s marriage to a disabled man. “It was by god’s will that he was chosen,” he says. “It was her fate.” Ahmed sits inside the mud-walled compound where he now lives with his two J wives. Outside, stray dogs roam in packs of three and four. They bite, Ahmed warns. He says the fact that Ramzan is nearly three times his daughter’s age is irrele- vant. But the legal marrying age here is 16, and in a rare move, police did investi- gate Saima’s marriage after they received a complaint, possibly from a relative involved in a dispute with her father. Ramzan and Ahmed were jailed for a few days, but Saima testified in court that she was 16 and they were released. She says she told the authorities she was 16 to protect her father and husband. In Saima’s world of crushing poverty, where centuries-old tribal traditions mix with religious beliefs, a crippling cycle traps even the perpetrators with a life’s burden: a father who longs for a son to help support his family; a wife who must provide that son; a daughter who must become a mother even when she is still a child. Saima’s mother, Janaat, agrees with marrying off her daughters early. She says girls are a headache after they reach puberty. They can’t be left at home alone for fear of unwanted sexual activity — or worse, the daughter leaves home with a boy of her choice. “That would be a shame for us. We would have no honor. No. When they reach puberty quickly, we have to marry them,” she says. “Daughters are a burden, but the sons, they are the owners of the house.” She says she accepted her husband’s North Korea is a bad trip if you’re looking to get high By Eric Talmadge The Associated Press YONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea has been getting some pretty high praise lately from the stoner world. Marijuana news outlets including High Times, Merry Jane, and Green Rush — along with British tabloids, which always love a good yarn — are hailing the North as a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. They’ve reported North Korean marijuana to be legal, abundant, and mind-blowingly cheap, sold openly to Chinese and Russian tourists at a major market on the North’s border for about $3 per pound. But seriously, North Korea? Baked? The claim that marijuana is legal in North Korea is not true: The North Korean penal code lists it as a controlled substance in the same category as cocaine and heroin. And the person who would likely help any American charged with a crime in North Korea emphatically rejects the idea that the ban is not enforced. “There should be no doubt that drugs, including marijuana, are illegal here,” said Torkel Stiernlof, the Swedish ambassador. The United States has no diplomatic relations with the North, so Sweden’s embassy acts as a middleman when U.S. citizens run afoul of North Korean laws. P “One can’t buy it legally and it would be a criminal offense to smoke it,” Stiernlof said. He said that if a foreigner caught violating drug laws in North Korea happened to be an American citizen, he or she could “expect no leniency whatsoever.” Americans have been sentenced to years in North Korean prisons for such seemingly minor offenses as stealing a political banner and leaving a Bible in a public place. Even so, the claim that North Korea is a haven for marijuana smokers has cycled through the internet in various incarna- tions with great success over the past few years. Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-government- funded news service, lit up the latest round of stoner glee in late December with a story that Chinese and Russian tourists are stocking up on North Korean pot by the kilo in Rason, a special economic zone on the country’s northernmost frontier that has a large, bazaar-style marketplace. The same market was the setting for one of the earliest blogs on the topic, a first-person account of getting high in the North from 2013. Categorically confirming or denying such claims is difficult because access to the market by foreigners is restricted. But where there’s smoke, there usually is at least a little fire. Continued on page 7 marriage to another woman; after all, it’s her fault he only has daughters. “I feel shame that I don’t have a son. I myself allowed my husband to get a second wife,” she says. Her husband’s new wife, Sabeel, says she agreed to marry Ahmed because of her brother. She wanted him to have a wife. “No one had been willing to give their daughters to my brother,” she says. Ramzan is quick to extend his hand to guests who enter through the torn and tattered curtain that hangs over the front door to his compound, tucked away in a narrow alley lined with open sewers. Ramzan’s elderly parents live with him. His father rarely leaves his bed, saying he has trouble walking. His mother begs from morning until night, sometimes knocking on doors, other times parking herself in the middle of a dusty road, her hand outstretched for donations. Like Ramzan, she can neither hear nor speak. Both her hips and one knee have been broken. She gestures as if breaking a twig to explain her troubled knee. Ramzan looks at Saima, her hair hidden beneath a sweeping shawl, her large brown eyes downcast. “I didn’t want to marry her so young. I said at the time, ‘She is too young,’ but everyone said I must,” he says through a series of gestures interpreted by those around him. He held his hand up just below his chest, showing how tall she was when they married. WATTA SATTA. Mohammad Ramzan, right, shows the marriage contract with his young bride Saima, left, in Jampur, Pakistan. Saima was given as a bride to the older man by her father so he could marry the groom’s sister, a practice of exchanging girls that is entrenched in conservative regions of Pakistan. It even has its own name in Urdu: Watta Satta, which means give and take. A mix of interests — family obligations, desire for sons, a wish to hand off a girl to a husband — can lead to a young teen in a marriage she never sought. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudhry) Saima doesn’t talk much. Her answers are short, and matter of fact. “His sister and my father fell in love and they exchanged me,” Saima says. “Yes, I am afraid of my father, but it is his decision who I will marry and when.” She picks at the rope bed where she sits with Ramzan. Her husband often reaches to touch the top of her head. He gestures that he is afraid Saima will leave him one day, and says that god will be unhappy if she does. Saima had gotten pregnant soon after she came to live with Ramzan but lost the child at five months. Ramzan gestures that he wants Saima to take some medicine to help her get pregnant again. Saima rarely looks in his direction but says she has no quarrel with him, nor does she plan to leave. Saima says she understands her husband’s gestures, but it’s hard to know. Most of the translations are done by his 12-year-old niece, Haseena, Sabeel’s daughter from a previous marriage. Haseena was 10 when Saima married her uncle Ramzan and her mother left to live with the new bride’s father. Haseena stayed in the house with her uncle and her elderly grandparents to cook, clean, and keep Saima company. She even prepared Saima’s wedding dinner. “When Saima married my uncle, my mother told me to leave school and be with Saima because she will be all alone at home,” Haseena says. Haseena recalls that Saima seemed so young, the family felt sorry for her. “At her age, she should have been playing.” Back at Saima’s old home, her seven- year-old sister, Asma, wanders around, shoeless, her hair matted with dirt and dust. Asma already has been promised to her cousin, who is about 10. They will marry when she reaches puberty. Just another Sunday? North Korea low key on Kim’s birthday By Eric Talmadge The Associated Press YONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea marked Kim Jong Un’s birthday in a decidedly low- key manner. Though the young leader’s birthday is well-known throughout the country, it has yet to be celebrated with the kind of adulatory festivities that accompany the birthdays of his late grandfather and father. Pyongyang residents did what they do every second Sunday of the new year — joined in sports events. Kim Jong Un, who is believed to be 33 or 34 years old and the world’s youngest head of state, assumed power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. With the official period of mourning his father’s death over and his own powerbase apparently solid, Kim presided over a once-in-a-generation party congress last May that was seen by many as something of a coronation and the beginning of the Kim Jong Un era. But he has continued to keep a step or two behind his predecessors in the coun- try’s intense cult of personality. Kim’s grandfather, “eternal president” Kim Il Sung, and Kim Jong Il statues and por- traits are found in virtually every public space or home. Their pins are worn over the hearts of every adult man and woman. P Rumors were rife that a new pin featuring Kim Jong Un would be issued during the May party congress, but they proved to be unfounded. Calendars for this year don’t denote January 8 as anything other than a normal Sunday, and there was no mention of the birthday in Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party newspaper. The only time Kim has been honored in public on his birthday was in 2014, when former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang “Happy Birthday” to him before an exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang. North Korean officials say the low-key approach — and the very little information made public about his wife and family — reflects Kim’s “humble” nature and re- spect for his forbearers. Kim seemed to amplify that image in his New Year’s address, when he closed with remarks about his desire to be a better leader. Even so, 2017 could turn out to be a bigger than normal year in North Korea for Kim-related events. State media have suggested Kim Jong Il’s birthday in February and especially Kim Il Sung’s birthday in April will be celebrated in a more lavish than usual manner, though exactly what’s in store is not known. And Kim Jong Un has already had something of a big New Year’s event — days after his address, tens of thousands of North Koreans rallied in Pyongyang in the customary show of support for their leader.