Sometimes people ask me why more Muslim women don't speak out against the unspeakable situation for women in Islamic cultures and subcultures. "The taxi driver who doubled as a bounty hunter: For £5,000 he tracked down young women fleeing a forced marriage and brought them back to their families," by Nadeem Badshah for the Guardian, August 29:
On the face of it, Zakir was simply a veteran taxi driver and a popular member of the community in Bradford. Few customers would have realised that behind his bubbly exterior he provided another, much more sinister service. For around £5,000, Zakir would track down women and girls who had run away from home to escape a forced marriage. A bounty hunter, Zakir's mission was to bring them back to their families.While most locals in the tightly knit south Asian community thought Zakir was merely picking up and dropping off passengers each day, his work provided perfect cover to exploit his contacts with fellow drivers and shopkeepers to hunt down runaway teenagers. According to Zakir, some bounty hunters would also befriend officials in housing departments and in the Department for Work and Pensions to get National Insurance numbers - a strategy confirmed by campaigners against forced marriages.
Zakir's job was never to harm his targets, but to return them home to face their "destiny" of being made to marry someone their parents had chosen. Despite the fact that runaways can be beaten for having escaped, he sides with the families on the issue. The softly spoken driver, speaking to G2 on the condition his real name was not used, insisted: "I did it as a favour to the families, as I knew most of them. It wasn't about the money. It was about izzat [honour]. I saw the effect it had on them when their daughter ran away. The worry and the shame from the community talking about them. I was part of the 'taxi driver network', so we shared information about who we picked up and where they got dropped off. [...]
Some families are so fearful of this kind of gossip they agree a verbal contract with a bounty hunter where the reward can be as much as £10,000. Others even hire female bounty hunters to pose as domestic violence victims to enter refuges and find their target.
One woman who knows what it feels like to be hunted down is Jaspreet. She ran away from her home in Sheffield after discovering that her father was arranging her marriage. The 21-year-old said: "I overheard my dad talking to his brother in Pakistan about getting me married to my cousin over there. He'd never discussed marriage with me.
"I didn't want to get married yet. I wanted to finish my law degree. I would have been happy to have an arranged marriage in my mid-20s. But when I protested, my dad threatened me physically and said I would be letting the family down if I refused. I couldn't take any more of the rows, so I ran away."
Days later, Jaspreet found out that her father had asked a family friend to track her down. "It didn't surprise me; towards the end, my dad pretty much disowned me. The hardest thing was leaving my mum and sister - they weren't fussed if I got married to my cousin, but were powerless to stop my dad. I was told [the family friend] was passing my photo around and contacting my friends. So I moved down to London to stay with a friend and changed my appearance.
"It was horrible waking up and having that fear that someone is looking for you, and could hurt you. I used to always think 'when will this end?' I had counselling for my anxiety and panic attacks. My dad would have probably beaten me if I returned home; he had no love for me any more. That's why I moved to London."
Another alarming case was Zena Briggs, who was forced to live on a witness protection scheme after fleeing an arranged marriage in 1993. When she ran away with her white partner Jack Briggs, her Pakistani family in Yorkshire hired a bounty hunter to try and kill them both. She has since divorced and set up a charity called the Zena Foundation to help victims of honour violence. [...]
As for the former bounty hunter Zakir, he is clear about what will stop the problem. "Nothing. Families will do anything in the name of honour."
Of course, the old argument 'culture' not 'religion' will be trotted out. But when did the 'culture' of 'honor' killings and forced marriages begin? It wouldn't happen to be around the time that Islam appeared, would it?
In that case, the 'culture' is inextricably involved with the 'religion' of Islam. One informs the other.
Stories like these need to be told. And told and told!!
Perhaps if enough GOOD PEOPLE read it and say, NOT IN MY FREE COUNTRY will this be done to ANY woman.... then the situation might change.
By getting the information about the spy-taxi drivers and their agents and "spy-faux battered" women out to the REAL battered women's shelters then an UNDERGROUND RAILWAY can be formed and these women can be better served to escape the idiotic muslim sense of "honor".
It is against the law to aid and abet kidnapping in CIVILISED countries.
Zakir's job was never to harm his targets, but to return them home to face their "destiny" of being made to marry someone their parents had chosen.
Ah yes, it's all "Allah's will" anyway. These hunted women's destiny is to be forced into marriage they don't want. Sick society, should not be tolerated in the West. Time to review our immigration policies, bring back human decency, and deport the miscreants who abuse others, especially the women. Shouldn't the 'Feminists' be screaming mad about this?
Back in the 1960's we had Feminists "bra burning", now fast forward half a century back to the future to protect women's rights. What do we need for female liberation? Burqa burning?
Battle of Tours--
Actually, Taslima Nasrin has gotten into a heap of trouble for suggesting just that:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/01/muslim-law-board-in-india-calls-for-expulsion-of-bangladeshi-writer-who-called-on-women-to-burn-the.html
In her case, the uproar has been mainly in India and Bangladesh. Clearly, though, it would receive much the same reception in Muslim communities (or in some European cities, enclaves) in the West, with a generous dollop of p.c., self-congratulatory indignation.
What prevents Islamic leadership from doing something about this horrific practice?
"What prevents Islamic leadership from doing something about this horrific practice?"
their religion....
Actually, Taslima Nasrin has gotten into a heap of trouble for suggesting just that
True Marisol, it just shows how in half a century how far we have fallen behind. Nobody back in the 60's threatened women's lives when they protested for equal status with 'bra burnings'. Today's Muslim reality is so full of threats and death fatwas that to burn burqas becomes unthinkable. Chalk one up to 'multiculturalism' equality, where some cultures are more equal than others. This double standard that allows Muslims to get away with 'murder' must be not only condemned, but made illegal in all countries of the West, by zeroing in on their vile ideology that allows for such gross travesty. Western Feminists seem rather tame and quiet in the face of this real threat from Islam. There is no moral/cultural equivalence to threatening women with murder, for 'honor' or otherwise. Aren't forced marriages illegal in the West? Then lean the law on them.
"Where to, Ma'am?"
"As far away from here as possible."
...an hour later
"Hey, why did we circle back to my parents' house? And why does the meter read 1000?"
"Oh, that's the little reward I get for bringing you back. Remain calm now, this won't hurt a bit.."
"I saw the effect it had on them when their daughter ran away."
of course..but he didn't set the dreams of a young girl being willfully thrown under the bus...her life be damned..she is a Muslim and she will tow the party line or else....
" I would have been happy to have an arranged marriage in my mid-20s. ".....clearly low self esteem and a marriage destined for unhappiness...
The softly spoken driver, speaking to G2 on the condition his real name was not used,...
OK, we know the Guardian supports some pretty unsavoury positions, but how can they justify covering for a kidnapper. Please note: it is incorrect to call this guy a bounty hunter, which implies his victims are criminals evading justice, he is a kidnapper trafficking young women who have freely chosen to execute their legal right to freedom of choice.
"I didn't want to get married [to the cousin] yet. I wanted to finish my law degree."
This is like 'Jane Eyre', she's searching the land for her Lord Byron in the modern moderate uK.
"My dad would have probably beaten me if I returned home; he had no love for me any more." -- lovely Jaspreet
No love for her "any more"? I would suggest that her father didn't love her *before* the situation erupted with her running away--demonstrated by the fact that he chose to completely ignore Jaspreet's wishes and desires concerning her own education and marriage. Her father is extremely selfish, controlling and abusive. Of course this type of control and abuse is sanctioned by islam and company through the koran and other islamic texts.
Hell. On. Earth.
I AM SURPRISED AN EXPERT IN ISLAM AND OBJECTIVE SCHOLAR HAS FAILED TO MENTION THAT JASPREET IS A SIKH NAME!!! AND THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A SOUTH ASIAN THING, AND YOU WILL FIND THAT HINDU'S, MUSLIMS, SIKHS, AND CHRISTIANS IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN ALL PARTAKE IN THIS KIND OF THING.
LOL, FUNNY THING IS IF ROBERT READ THE ARTICLE HE WOULD OF REALISED, BUT THEN AGAIN HE REALISES YOU GUYS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALISE THAT FOR YOURSELVES.
Looking around at various threads, I must ask: Did I miss a memo about today being all-caps day at JW?
It is an international all-caps day, perhaps? Maybe we don't recognize here in the U.S.
Chris = Christine, gender = girl, name origin latin = follower of Christ
Jenson = Jensen Ackles??
"PARTAKE" = verb often used when talking about food or drink, ..when it's a guilty pleasure.
you're probably a fat Christian chick. A muslim friend talked you into fasting/dieting this ramadan, and it's not going so well.
There is Hannah Shah's "The Imam's Daughter". She runs away from an arranged marriage and Omer, the social worker and also a Pakistani Muslim, brings her back home to her abusive father. There is no escape.
Exactly! I wanted to say the same thing, but you have articulated it better than I would have done. He is a criminal, and an accessory to whatever harm the families subjected the girls to after he returned them.
Can all of his returns be accounted for ? Is he possibly an accessory to murder ?
Remember those nifty words spoken by the parents of Muslim girls who have justified their Islamic honor by killing the child..."Honey, please come home, we love you....we won't hurt you".....
The girls who ignore this plea...live longer...
So now I've seen everything.
The muslim equivalent of "Dog the Bounty Hunter".
Just like Dog, he brings "fugitives" to "justice".
Course he can't use that name, maybe he should call himself "Goat".
Doesn't have quite the same ring to it though.
Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Ahmadi Muslims make up 0.55% of the total pakistani population...
Where is the market for Sikh girls?
dipshit...
ALL IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO EXIST IS FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING.
While most locals in the tightly knit south Asian community...
Read Moslem community.
...his work provided perfect cover to exploit his contacts with fellow drivers and shopkeepers...
Read Tiny minority of extremists.
It is an international all-caps day, perhaps? Maybe we don't recognize here in the U.S.
------------------
Could it be related to the traditional Moslem holiday "ALL- DECAPS DAY?"
I would hope that even in suckered-by-sellout-politicians Britain this kind of bounty hunting amounts to kidnapping and is a punishable crime.
He should be charged with kidnapping and if the parents are found guilty of murder , he should be charged with murder as well.
Sikhs or Hindus do not marry to their cousins - its a customary thing. The Pakistanies or MoSlums in general marry to their cousins.
The name used is a generic name to keep the identity of the victim hidden -
re-read the article till you get it.
Judging by the tone of your blobber it is pretty obvious that you are a Pakistani and doing your usual trying to muddy the waters - "YOU WILL FIND THAT HINDU'S, MUSLIMS, SIKHS, AND CHRISTIANS IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN ALL PARTAKE IN THIS KIND OF THING." - ha ha ..
take a hike dude.. go someplace else where you wont be found out and stop spreading horse s... around here.
Back in the nineties I read an interview in the British Asin periodical 'Eastern Eye', with a private detective (a Sikh, as it happened) who specialised in tracking down girls running away from arranged marriages. He said that Asian taxi drivers were one of his most useful resources: they are common, even in areas that have no large Asian presence and they make a note of any new Asian faces that appear on their patch as they go about their job. If the detective thought a girl had headed for a certain town, the cabbies were the first people he spoke to.
At the time it occurred to me that in any sane society, the authorities would actively seek for a reason to close this man down (there are laws about stalking and invading people's privacy etc). As it is, he felt free to brag about how successful he was at his job and is no doubt still at it today. I wonder if he has been been responsible for making possible the murder of anybody?
Another point - a Sikh family will never hire a Pakistani dude to trace or anything to do with their daughter. I have met plenty Sikh and Hindu girls at several Universities, and learnt a lot about their culture. There are no restrictions on them to go educate themselves. It is an issue, big time, for MoSlum families.
Wally if you read it. my guess the run away girls would have read the same source. They won't use the cab services would they, if they were running away for their lives?
"What prevents Islamic leadership from doing something about this horrific practice?"
their religion....
No, that's not it. What prevents Islamic leadership from doing something about this is a) their supremacist attitudes and b) their absolute loyalty to their Worship-the-Penis-Club.
Muslims set it up and continue to demand that women be subject to their sexual desires and aberrations. Muslim fathers continue to arrange marriages so as to ensure that men will always have sexual access to women. They do this to ensure that THEY will continue to have access to sex on demand. These guys all agree to it and will use force to enforce it without any regard for the feelings or well being of any woman. It is totally self serving and debauched. Why else would Muslim fathers stop "loving" their Muslim daughters if they refuse to become chattle? Why do they kill them if they refuse? Because in Islam the penis is stronger than the heart.
"Others even hire female bounty hunters to pose as domestic violence victims to enter refuges and find their target."
Is there a law against a woman posing as a battered woman to track down another woman in a battered women's shelter, in order to return her to the batterer?
If not, there should be. With very severe penalties.
This cult really creeps me out.
This attitude of Muslim parents is clearly anti-Democratic. And very arguably anchored in Islamic teachings.
Fortunately in Holland both domestic violence and forced marriages are considered illegal and both problems are increasingly addressed.
The peculiar thing is that the socialist and christian politicians in power also employ Muslim(a)s in their approach to stop these practices. These Muslims proclaim that both practices are not "Islamic".
But I think Islam is still at fault for having these most important guiding texts (Quran-Hadiths) that are so ambiguous, contradicting and in practice so different and badly understood. And still being to stubborn or unable to improve and clarify them for one iota and then to proclaim that the name Muslim is only under certain conditions allowed. I mean: You don't see this kind of different interpretations/ practices among Jehovah's witnesses.
To read about this devious reaction to attempts of girls exercising their inalienable democratic rights and the governments still feeble attempts to help them, is baffling.
But we should remain dedicated in our goals of absolute autonomy of girls over 18 and no marriages before that age. And we should, I think, let Muslims take an oath, not just of loyalty to our laws, as is already being done, but of actually choosing our laws OVER AND ABOVE Shariah-laws that clearly contradict them (33 of them do, as Nonie Darwish showed in "Shariah for Dummies").
So according to Chris Jenson this forced marriage and kidnapping thing is ALSO done by Sikhs and Hindus. Tu Quoque. So what?
I compare Muslims who do this with conscious democratic people who don't. Even if Sikhs and Hindus also do it, then still that would not exonerate Muslims who do forced marriage and kidnapping, or their supreme guiding texts stimulating and condoning it.
Let Chris Jenson hold the Sikhs and Hindus (and their guiding texts) responsible, if he wants to. We hold the MUSLIMS responsible.
Tu Quoque is a false argument in my opinion.
I hope no one minds my re-posting a comment about a troubling incident with a cab driver I had two years ago:
I had something disturbing happen that reminds me of this. I heard Daniel Pipes speak at Berkeley a couple of weeks ago, and took a cab back with a friend since it was late.
My friend started chatting with the driver--it turned out he was from Afghanistan. Except for criticising US foreign policy, he seemed like a fairly nice guy.
Well, my husband and I got the same driver coming back from a concert the day after Halloween. The driver was quite friendly, reminding me that I had been in his cab a few weeks previous. It seemed fine.
On learning that my husband was--well, my husband--his demeanor started to change. He started to talk exclusively to my husband. This is not uncommon with Muslim cab drivers--I didn't pay much attention at first.
Then I realized that he was emphasizing that I had been out with another man [my platonic friend, who is also gay], and that I paid the fare [my friend had paid for dinner, I was reciprocating]. The driver didn't just mention this in passing--he said it over and over again, clearly disapproving.
I was horrified. Not only was it totally unprofessional and none of his damn business, but it occurred to me that if I was married to a different sort of man--the sort of man the cabbie seemed to think he was--I would be in for a very ugly time of things when we got home.
Later, my husband rather made light of this--agreeing that the man's behavior was unprofessional, but chalking it up to "culture". He also felt that if I was married to the sort of man the cabbie envisioned, that I would be in trouble in any case (this is true).
Still, I can't help but think of those Muslim cabbies in Britain who delivered Muslimahs trying to escape violent husbands back to their abusers.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/11/muslim-medic-in-uk-muslim-men-think-they-have-god-given-right-to-beat-wives.html#comment-487847