Baad (practice)
{{Short description|Payment of a criminal's family's female as settlement among Kochi Pashtuns}}
Baad is a method of settlement and compensation whereby a female from a criminal's family is given to the victim's family as a servant or a bride.{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/03/08/afghanistan-stop-women-being-given-compensation |title=Afghanistan: Stop Women Being Given as Compensation |publisher=Human Rights Watch |date=March 8, 2011 |accessdate=2017-05-26}} It is still practiced in certain areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, mainly among the Kochis.{{cite news|editor=Alissa Rubin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/asia/in-baad-afghan-girls-are-penalized-for-elders-crimes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |title=For Punishment of Elder's Misdeeds, Afghan Girl Pays the Price |work=The New York Times |date=February 16, 2012}} Although baad is illegal under Afghan law, many of the victims do not know their rights, and still more are prevented from exercising them.{{cite web |title=Afghan Girls Suffer for Sins of Male Relatives |date=26 March 2009 |url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/49dc4b201c.html |accessdate=2017-05-26|publisher=Institute for War and Peace Reporting |work=Wahida Paykan}}
Description
After a person commits a serious crime, a council of elders called jirga decides the punishment. The punishment for a smaller crime is a fine in the form of money or livestock. Standard penalty for a crime such as murder is for the offender's family to give a woman or girl to the victim's family. In theory, the woman or girl is given in forced marriage to a male in the victim's family. Baad sometimes leads to domestic violence.
The practice of baad has no Islamic basis. It is rather considered un-Islamic and illegal. As per the Hadith, "A non-virgin woman may not be married without her command, and a virgin may not be married without her permission; and it is permission enough for her to remain silent (because of her natural shyness)." [Al-Bukhari:6455, Muslim & Others].United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (2009), [http://www.unodc.org/documents/afghanistan/Juvenile_Justice/Juvenile_Justice_Manual_complete_2009_Nov_10.pdf Justice for Children in Conflict with the Law] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305040629/http://www.unodc.org/documents/afghanistan/Juvenile_Justice/Juvenile_Justice_Manual_complete_2009_Nov_10.pdf |date=2016-03-05 }}, pp. 50, 358-361
Afghan law
{{Further|Law of Afghanistan}}
Baad is a criminal offense under Article 517 of the 1976 Afghan Penal Code, but the Article applies only if a widow and woman above age 18 is given under Baad. According to Afghan law, the sentence for perpetrators of baad (i.e., forcing a woman into marriage and slavery through baad) cannot exceed two years of prison. No jirga elder or family is known to have been arrested or tried for taking or giving a woman or girl in baad. The practice of baad is mostly reported in Afghanistan's provinces of Kunar, Helmand and Balkh.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100731052320/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007238,00.html "Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban"], Bibi Aisha cover story in Time magazine
Category:Women's rights in Afghanistan