Sunday, February 22, 2009

Toronto Star (Canada): Afghan bride presses bigamy case in India

http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/591309

Afghan bride presses bigamy case in India
Feb 22, 2009 04:30 AM
Rick Westhead
SOUTH ASIA BUREAU

RAMA LAKSHMI/WASHINGTON POST FILE PHOTO:   Sabra Ahmadzai has wedding photos and videos, but the Indian army says there are discrepancies in her case against Maj. Chandrashekhar Pant. NEW DELHI – At a time when Indian women have been assaulted by so-called "moral police" for going to pubs, Sabra Ahmadzai , a 20-year-old Afghan, is being championed by women's groups for pursuing her rights.

Two years ago, Ahmadzai married an Indian army doctor who was assigned to a Kabul military hospital. Twenty days after the marriage, he returned to India, vowing to come back for her. But after leaving, he informed Ahmadzai he had a wife and children back home and was never going to return.

She decided to go to India and file a criminal complaint against him.

Her case has become a cause célèbre – featured in daily newspapers and on TV in both India and Afghanistan. She has met with India's home affairs minister and Afghanistan's ambassador to India.

A recent demonstration by her supporters blocked traffic for five hours here.

This is a very conservative country, slow to change. Dowry, female bondage and forced prostitution are common in some parts of India, especially rural areas. But a growing middle class is rethinking traditional attitudes.

Ahmadzai's dark eyes smoulder as she tells her story, sitting in a quiet corner of the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus here.

Two years ago, she married Maj. Chandrashekhar Pant just before he was reassigned to India but promised he would return.

Six months later, in July 2007, Ahmadzai says he phoned to say he already had a wife – and two children.

"He told me I was young and beautiful and should go ahead and get married again."

In Kabul, she was scorned – even though village elders and her family had approved of her marriage to the physician.

"After he left, women said I was a stigma and should take poison," Ahmadzai says. "Boys said they would marry me for 20 days, too. I decided to do something about it."

So on Nov. 30, Ahmadzai borrowed $3,300 and boarded a plane to India to find Pant.

Over the past two months, her case has been keenly watched and has stoked furious debates both about women's rights and the conduct of Indian soldiers abroad.

"People say there's no more need for a women's movement, but cases like Sabra's remind us we have a raison d'être," says Kavita Krishnan, general secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association. "This is still a country where a chief minister recently stood up and criticized women who go to pubs. And it's still a place where the army protects its own against a woman like Sabra."

Sitting on a low brick wall outside her guesthouse, Ahmadzai explains she met the 40-year-old Pant when she was helping out as a translator at the hospital where he worked.

"This man three times came to my family to ask to marry me," she says.

"The first time, my father said it would not be right for me to marry outside our religion."

Pant pledged to convert to Islam and changed his name to Himmat Khan to appease Ahmadzai's father.

"My family eventually said I should do this because he had treated so many of our sick children and this was the right thing to do," Ahmadzai continues.

Knitting her brow, she tells of the day she found her husband in the Himalayan town of Pithoragarh, a two-day trip from Delhi.

"When he called me to say he had a wife, he had told me where he was posted and that's the only information I had to find him.

"I got off the bus in Pithoragarh and went to the army hospital. When finally I found him, he was totally surprised. He rushed me out so I wouldn't speak to anyone else."

Pant took Ahmadzai to his home and the two began negotiations.

She gave him three choices: she could move in with his family in India; his Indian family could move with them to Kabul; or he could travel to Kabul and grant her a divorce.

"He said no to all three and just wanted to give me some money," Ahmadzai says, brushing her hair from her face.

Days later, she filed a police complaint. Under Indian law, Pant faces as many as 10 years in prison if convicted if bigamy.

Pant has denied he ever married Ahmadzai and said the wedding photos and videos she has provided are photo-shopped fakes.

Gen. Deepak Kapoor said at a press conference last month that there are discrepancies: Ahmadzai says the wedding took place in December 2006, but Pant was in Afghanistan from January to November of that year.

Ahmadzai says the army misinterpreted the wedding date from the Islamic calendar date she provided.

"They are doing what they can to protect their soldier," she says.

"But this will not go away. I will get justice."

Monday, February 9, 2009

BBC News (UK): Afghan bride confronts missing major

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7870643.stm

Afghan bride confronts missing major
By Moska Najib
BBC News, Delhi



Ms Ahmadzai says that she has proof on video of her marriage to the army officer


Early morning prayers at Hazrat Nizammudin, a sufi shrine in the Indian capital, Delhi.

In the main hall of the onion-shaped dome people are milling around, their hands clasped in prayer.

Men entering the shrine pay their respects as women huddle outside, peering in.

Sitting by a pillar and praying is 20-year-old Sabra Ahmadzai. She left her home, Afghanistan, for the first time in November of last year.

Along with personal belongings which included copies of her wedding video and marriage certificate, she boarded a flight to India to confront the man she says is her missing husband - a doctor in the Indian Army.


Taboo

Ms Ahmadzai was working as a Hindi translator in a hospital in Kabul where she met her husband, Maj Chandrashekhar Pant.

She is now pursuing a case of bigamy.

"We were together for about 15 days when he was transferred back to India," she says.

"He promised to return with his parents and left. In six months he only called me three times, and in his last call he told me Sabra you are young and you can marry again - I have two kids and a wife from before."

In Afghanistan marrying a foreigner is still taboo.

But Ms Ahmadzai said that she decided to go ahead after he converted to Islam and after receiving the consent of her family and relatives.

Dressed in a white gown and holding hands, her wedding video shows the couple walking down the aisle, cutting their wedding cake and performing the ceremonial rituals of an Islamic marriage.

Ms Ahmadzai says she waited for two years for her husband to return but the talk in the neighbourhood of her abandonment became unbearable.


'Three options'

"People would often ask me why hasn't your husband returned? Does he even call you? I was quite upset by all this, so I decided to come to India and confront him."


Having travelled two days on a local bus to the small hill town of Pithoragarh in the Himalayas, Ms Ahmadzai met Maj Pant on the hallway of the local hospital.

She says he was taken aback by her unexpected visit to his hometown.

"I told him I will give you three options and you can choose what suits you best," she said.

"When a girl marries she lives in her husband's house, so either you let me live with your family here in India, or you and your family come with me to Afghanistan. And if you are not happy with either of these choices, then at least come to Afghanistan and divorce me in front of the same cleric and the same people."

Ms Ahmadzai - who has now been in India for more than six weeks - is grateful for the support of local students and non-government organisations (NGOs).

With their help, she has already registered a complaint with the police. Her lawyer, Ravindra Garia, says they have a solid case against the major.

"Sabra is here, there are video CDs of her marriage and she has a wedding certificate which is a documentary proof that this marriage actually took place," he says.

However, according to the local police, Maj Pant has said his picture in the wedding video has been fabricated.

"Chandrashekhar Pant denies that any marriage ceremony has taken place and believes that these photographs are actually cut and paste," Police superintendent of Pithoragarh, PS Rawat told the BBC.


'Disciplinary action'

While an inquiry is in progress, the Indian Army Chief, Deepak Kapoor, says action will only be taken if the major is found guilty.

The bride has thanked all who have helped her in Delhi

"If an inquiry reveals that an army man is at fault, he is automatically liable to appropriate disciplinary action and it will be immediately taken. The army does not believe in the philosophy of shielding a perpetrator of any kind of irregularity, corruption or crime," he said.

Gen Kapoor says the army has done its own investigation and has found a certain "dichotomy" between army records and what Ms Ahmadzai claims in her complaint to the police.

"The dichotomy stems from the fact that her so-called marriage took place in December. As per our records and according to the details of the officer on the mission to Afghanistan, he was there from January to November. So there is a basic dichotomy in what the FIR (First Information Report) has said and what the officer has done when he was detailed there," Gen Kapoor said.

Meanwhile, for Sabra Ahmadzai this is a battle that must be fought - even if it takes many years.

"I have learnt that you should not marry outside your community," she says, "and if you do then you should inquire and be careful."

As she walks out of the shrine into the winding lanes of Nizamuddin, she talks of returning to Afghanistan and opening an NGO that will help other Afghan women from being exploited in these difficult times her country is facing.

"This fight is not just for me," she says while nibbling on prayer sweets and rose petals, "but for people who are facing similar situations and they must fight it out."