Gay Marriage in...Pakistan???

[Jo Canadian]

8O I never thought that anyone would try that over there. You must admit these guys have balls*.


First gay 'marriage' in Pakistan


A gay couple have become the first to get "married" in Pakistan, according to reports from the region. Witnesses said a 42-year-old Afghan refugee held a marriage ceremony with a local tribesman of 16 in the remote Khyber region bordering Afghanistan.

Gay marriage is not legal in conservative Muslim Pakistan.

On hearing of the wedding, a tribal council told the pair to leave the area or be killed for breaking religious and tribal "values and ethics".

'Pomp and show'

A local Urdu-language newspaper said the elder man, named as Liaquat Ali, had taken a local boy called Markeen as "his male bride". The paper said the boy's impoverished parents accepted 40,000 rupees (£380) for their son's hand in marriage. "The marriage was held amid usual pomp and show associated with a tribal wedding," it said.

Malik Waris Khan, a prominent local politician and former federal minister, confirmed to AFP that the marriage had taken place. "I checked the report with people in Tirah Valley and they confirmed it," he said. Although it remains a taboo subject, homosexuality is relatively common in Pakistan, says the BBC's correspondent Aamer Ahmed Khan in Islamabad.

Increasingly, gay couples are living together in some of the big cities such as Karachi and Islamabad, but gay marriages remain unheard of, he says. Pakistani law punishes sodomy with imprisonment ranging from two years to life. Some Islamic provisions prescribe 100 lashes for the act or even death by stoning.

A gay couple caught having sex were lashed publicly in the Khyber region in May.



*Pun intended

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: Gay Marriage in...Pak

Looks like the world is changing whether the various stripes of fundies like it or not.

 

[GL Schmitt]

First gay 'marriage' in Pakistan
. . . the elder man, named as Liaquat Ali, had taken a local boy called Markeen as "his male bride". The paper said the boy's impoverished parents accepted 40,000 rupees (£380) for their son's hand in marriage. . .

Judging from the newspaper account, I wonder if this is really so much a case of gay marriage.

Might it not rather be a case of male prostitution -- possibly even economic slavery?

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: Gay Marriage in...Pak

No moreso than many other marriages in that culture, GL.

 

[Shiva]

First gay 'marriage' in Pakistan
. . . the elder man, named as Liaquat Ali, had taken a local boy called Markeen as "his male bride". The paper said the boy's impoverished parents accepted 40,000 rupees (£380) for their son's hand in marriage. . .

Judging from the newspaper account, I wonder if this is really so much a case of gay marriage.

Might it not rather be a case of male prostitution -- possibly even economic slavery?

No, the giving of a dowry to the bride's family is expected and mandatory in South Asia. Unless you're willing to categorize all Pakistani (or Indian...or Bangladeshi...or Sri Lankan) marriages as prostitution or economic slavery, then there's nothing out of the ordinary here. I suppose they've adapted this normal tradition to their particular situation.

Human trafficking for sexual slavery is quite common in South Asia, but if it were a mere matter of prostitution the boy would have been bought, used, and then sent to a brothel for others to use. But in this case, the guy says it's a marriage and is keeping him all to himself... Considering the boy's age, though, it definitely does seem like exploitation. Nothing about love has been mentioned, so I'm assuming it's been arranged.

I want to know whether they leave or stay in their locality or not, though. The death threats are a serious matter, and if locals were to kill them for this the police would probably turn a blind eye to it.