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By Annan Boodram |
October 2001: In what was considered a landmark ruling, a Queens, New York recently Supreme Court judge ruled that a marriage performed under religious rites was legal and binding between the parties even though the marriage might not be registered in the county where it was performed.
Judge Darrell L. Gavrin ruled that even without a marriage license and a registered religious minister to officiate at the ceremony, a wedding conducted under Hindu rites was legal and binding. The ruling came in the wake of a divorce case involving a Guyanese Hindu couple; one of whom wanted to nullify the marriage. It was the first ruling of its kind involving Hindus from any part of the world.
In the case, Persaud vs Balram, the plaintiff Christendo Persaud sought a declaration from the court that he and his wife, Mala Balram, were never legally married. But his wife provided proof of a Hindu wedding which her attorney argued was binding between the parties and having legal effect.
The couple was married on May 22, 1994 according to Hindu customs by Pandit Moscan Persad but the marriage was never registered with the county, which is necessary to legalize a marriage. The couple also did not have a marriage permit to get married and the Pandit was not accredited to perform legal marriages in New York State.
Judge Gavrin based his ruling on precedents. He said that in several previous cases, New York courts had upheld marriages as valid even in the absence of a marriage license, involving several other religions. The crux of the ruling dealt with the strong presumption in New York law favoring the validity of a religious marriage ceremony. And with the ruling, recognition has now been granted to a Hindu wedding.
Justice Gavrin rejected Persaud's claim that since they were never married, there should be no question of a divorce. "The parties' intentions can only render a marriage service void if there is a lack of mutual intent to marry," he said, adding that Persaud had not demonstrated this to be the case.
"It is clear to the court that the parties' ultimate intention was to be husband and wife. At best, they were laboring under a mistaken belief that their religious ceremony would not have a legal effect. The religious ceremony was an austere ritual of the Hindu faith, witnessed by numerous guests. Thus, all the requirements of a lawful marriage under New York State Domestic Relations Law were met'" the judge ruled.
Justice Gavrin went to emphasize that the priest had more than adequately established that he possessed the requisite authority to solemnize marriages in the Hindu religion. Hence the marriage was recognized as legal and binding and if the couple wished to have a divorce they would have to go through a normal legal divorce process.
The above ruling is landmark not only because of its legal implications but also because it a very rare blow struck on behalf of women. Consider the following:
Earlier this year a judge in Suriname suspended a 20-month sentence against a former defense minister convicted of statutory rape for having a sexual relationship with a then-13-year-old girl.
Judge Albert Ramnewash put Ramon Dwarka Panday on probation for three years for the affair with an Amerindian girl, whose mother placed her in Dwarka Panday's care so she could attend school in the capital, Paramaribo.
The girl, now 15, was from a village 250 kilometers (156 miles) west of the capital, and was staying at a dormitory in the capital. Dwarka Panday paid her living expenses, according to testimony.
Also earlier this year a judge in Bangladesh sentenced a man and a woman to 20 years of hard labor for attempting to smuggle five teen-age Bangladesh girls into India, court officials said today. The girls were believed to be destined for brothels.
The Associated Press calls the ruling a landmark, since the court imposed the highest possible penalty for a crime which is rarely prosecuted.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, said in March that 10,000 to 15,000 Bangladeshi women are trafficked across the border to India annually. And the Indian Association for the Rescue of Fallen Women estimated that in 1992 there were 8 million brothel workers and 7.5 million call girls in India
Trafficking in South Asia often involves girls lured from rural villages to cities by promises of jobs as domestic servants or nannies. When the girls arrive in the cities, they are often gang raped and forced into having sex with six to 10 clients a day. For most of the girls, there is no escape and no means to earn money to escape the practice
In a related matter a Bangladesh offshoot of the Newham Bengali Community Trust has dealt in the last three years with 49 cases of girls and women -- usually in their late teens -- brought from the United Kingdom trapped in marriages in Bangladesh. The victims are persuaded to travel to the country on the pretense of visiting relatives or vacationing but are forced into unwanted marriages after their passports are confiscated.
And a Pakistani man in eastern Punjab province, a father reportedly strangled his teenage daughter, whom he suspected of adultery - the latest in Pakistan's "honor killings." The man's son allegedly aided in the killing.
Victims of honor killings, which are rampant in Pakistan, are often accused only of sitting next to unrelated men or looking at men other than their husbands.
Rights activists say most such killings go unpunished, citing government impotence and police reluctance to investigate
Four million women are sold each year as slaves, according to Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, a Swiss delegate to the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. One-fifth of employers who use slave labor have diplomatic immunity, the Mexico City La Cronica de Hoy reports. Most of these diplomats are from Africa and the Middle East but there are also some from Europe, the report adds.
Thousands of women are sold as slaves in Europe every year but accurate estimates are difficult to find because not all countries have researched the problem, according to the report.
Kalayaan, a UK nongovernmental organization, said that 4,000 enslaved women it cared for came from 29 countries. The group added that 84% were abused psychologically, 54% were prohibited from leaving their places of employment, 38% were beaten and 10% were sexually abused.
And in India, where the dowry practice,bride-murders and the infanticide, continue to define the male/female relationship, the latest census figures have shown a steady decrease in the female population in all the states. Averaging 927 female children per thousand male children in the zero- to six-year-old age group, some states fare even worse. Sanjiv Malik, secretary general of the IMA points out that the statistics clearly indicate that the girl child is being eliminated either before or after birth.
Add to all of the above the practice of genital mutilation so prevalent in Africa and one begins to get a picture of the level of exploitation and subjugation practiced against women especially in in developing nations, where even the legal framework fosters the abuse and exploitation.