Swara (custom)

Swara is a child marriage custom in tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is tied to blood feuds among the different tribes and clans where young girls are forcibly married to members of different clans in order to resolve the feuds. It is most common among Pashtuns.

Swara is also known as Sak, Vani and Sangchatti in different regional languages of Pakistan.

Hashmi and Koukab claim this custom started almost 400 years ago when two northwestern Pakistani Pashtun tribes fought a bloody war against each other. During the war, hundreds were murdered. The Nawab, regional ruler, settled the war by calling a Jirga of elders from both sides. The elders decided that the dispute and crime of men be settled by giving their girls as a retaliatory punishment. Ever since then, tribal and rural jirgas have been using young virgin girls from 4 to 14 years old, through child marriages, to settle crimes such as murder by men. This blood for blood tradition is practiced in different states of Pakistan such as Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, KP (formally Sarhad/NWFP) and tribal areas.

Some scholars claim the Hudood Ordinance of 1979 by Pakistan government, which made Sharia its prime source of law, as another driver encouraging Swara and Vani.

In Afghanistan, a similar custom is called Ba'ad, sometimes as Sawara.

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