Intersectional Struggles: Religious Minority Women and Marriage Rights in Pakistan

‘A step backwards’, is what Engels thought of the institution of marriage. Defining it as the first great division of labour, he argued that this institution was inherently oppressive within which the prosperity and comfort of one (men) was won through the misery and agony of the other (women). The first class oppression thus appeared with that of the female sex by the male.

To this day, womankind has been facing the consequences of this historic fallacy. The institution of marriage, despite its historical roots in perpetuating gender oppression, remains deeply embedded within societal structures, making it challenging to overlook its strong influence. Zia-ul-Haq’s religious misadventures not only jeopardised the position of women in society, especially from religious minorities but also left them at the mercy of the patriarchal prejudices of their own male religious leaders
who desired to maintain their hegemony on religious pretext, making it difficult for women to secure their rights in any legislation.

Charges of Adultery or an Unhappy Marriage:
Imagine being stuck in an unhappy marriage and having no way out of it, except falsely accusing your partner of adultery or altogether renouncing your religion and accepting another faith. The Christian minority of the country was caught in this dilemma after Zia-ul-Haq repealed section 7 of the Matrimonial Clauses Act 1973, which allowed for divorce if no prospect for the marriage to work out was left, which left them with the only option of using section 10 that allowed the use of adultery to dissolve marriages. This situation resulted in grave consequences as Christian couples found themselves trapped in their wedding commitments. Regrettably, women, entangled in the complex web of intersectionality, bore the heaviest burden, facing an alarming surge in baseless allegations of adultery.

In 2016, a man named Ameen Masih had had enough and came forward to file a petition in Lahore High Court seeking a divorce from his wife without having to injure her reputation or compromise her human dignity. It was only then that light was shed on the glaring instances of sheer neglect and discrimination within the marriage laws pertaining to minority communities, in a country that had initially obtained independence based on its commitment to safeguard the rights of these marginalized groups. In
the landmark judgment of the Ameen Masih case, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah ruled that the omission of section 7 in 1981 by General Zia-ul-Haq was unconstitutional and Ameen had the right to divorce his wife under section 7 of the Christian Divorce Act, 1869. Despite the formation of The Christian Marriage and Divorce Act 2019 after considerable efforts on the part of the civil community and the government, the plight of Christian women continues as the Act awaits legislation and implementation.

No Escape from Domestic Violence:
No matter how miserable the lives of Christian women are, they are willing to submit to the cruelties than to charge or be charged with adultery. One such woman in the vicinity of my neighborhood faced the same dilemma when her husband was a drug addict and used to beat her.

‘I was told that I can only get a divorce from him if I charge him with adultery, which is impossible for me to prove, or get charged with it from his side. The other way is converting to another religion which is out of the question. How unfortunate I am that despite his inhumane treatment, I have to obey him for fear of him charging me with adultery to seek a divorce which will leave me with a huge pervasive societal stigma, tarnish my reputation, and subject me to judgment and discrimination. A poor Christian woman, the three deadly identities, where will I find my place in this society?’

In a society where the honour of women serves as the bedrock of cultural values, the specter of losing one’s honour can become a woman’s worst nightmare, particularly when she is already marginalised due to her religious identity and social class.

The Plight of the Hindu Women: What took us so long?
Pakistan has a Hindu population of about 3.593 million but regrettably, the country never bothered about the proper legislation for its minorities as it was not until 2014, 67 years after its creation, that the first bill of Hindu Marriage was presented in the National Assembly. One wonders what took us so long to draft a bill that is the basic need of any community. You are helpless if there is no defined set of laws for your
marriage or family, and hence no legal protection. It only comes when the state recognises your marital status and has intact laws to safeguard your rights in the contract between you and your partner. The alarming prevalence of domestic violence, compromised inheritance rights, the absence of divorce protection, and the intricate challenges surrounding child custody within minority communities have left minority women in a distressingly vulnerable position. This vulnerability is caused by the state’s lamentable negligence, for 67 years, in enacting comprehensive legislation that adequately addresses the family law needs of minority women. Women continued to suffer the repercussions of the absence of any marriage laws. They faced constant distress as they could be thrown out of their matrimonial homes due to the absence of evidence, leaving them helpless with no financial security. This lack of documentation also allowed husbands to enter into second marriages while the first marriage was still valid, leaving wives with no legal recourse. Additionally, the absence of marriage registration papers posed challenges in safeguarding property rights for wives and children after the husband’s death.

Next year, the Hindu Marriage Act 2017 was passed, for federal and other provinces except Sindh. This act covered a wide range of family laws as compared to the one passed in Sindh providing considerable relief to the plight of Hindu women by granting them legal protection, however, the loopholes start appearing as one observes the lack of detailed laws regarding issues of child custody after divorce and financial security of the divorced women.

One cannot help but wonder if it would take another 67 years for the government to put in place the related laws to end the misery of its minority women. While the Act was welcomed by the Hindu community, one must hold the state responsible for the forced conversions, abductions, and kidnapping of Hindu women, for years, by influential Muslims owing to the lack of any proof of the already married status of the woman they converted and forcibly married. The same fate was reserved for the Sikh community, with the Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act only being passed 5 years ago, failing to be implemented for yet another 2 years, and then being put for amendment in 2021. To this date, the community awaits the bill as it still remains in the pipeline due to the lack of concern for the country’s minorities, and Sikh women continue bearing the brunt of the myriad injustices and hardships resulting from the absence of legal recognition for their marriages, amplifying the oppressive nature inherent in the institution itself.

The writer is a feminist activist and specialises in South Asian History at Quad-i-Azam University.