The most frequent way of trafficking women from Chitral to other parts of the country is promising them marriage, according to a recent study.
The study titled, ‘Documenting causes and consequences of down country marriages in Chitral,’ says that over the past two decades internal trafficking of women from Chitral to southern parts of the country in the name of marriage has increased. The study has been conducted by the Regional Women Empowerment Project of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program.
Women in the district, suffering from poverty, illiteracy and unemployment, are tempted with a city life by middlemen who promise to find them suitors in other parts of the country. The report also quotes an official from the Anjuman Dawat-e-Azeemat Chitral, as saying that only 10% of marriages were genuine.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2012.