In 2016, I learned of a women’s right’s issue pertaining to my home country, Pakistan. In an attempt to study it I made a short trailer for a film on the subject matter; Haq Bakshish. I directed, researched, and produced this piece but lost the funding to keep on building it.
One taboo which is not talked about much is of women being forced to marry the Holy Quran. I was able to question supreme court judges, as well as a young woman who was currently experiencing this horrific event in her life, found by a hired fixer on the ground.
The term, traditionally known as Haq Bakshish, literally means giving up the right to marry. This tradition is as inhumane as anything else in the world, where women are forced off their rights to marry and live in isolation. To think of it, these women are treated as born slaves since childhood who will do whatever the patriarchal mindset of their family says. The only thing they could ever look forward to, marriage, is taken away from them as well. Known as the ‘wives of the Quran’, these women are forced by their families to marry the Quran (nauzobillah) instead of a human of the opposite sex. The reason? It is very simple. This way, the family gets to keep the property (jaidad) with them, instead of giving it away to the girls upon their marriage.