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Watta satta

Watta sattaorshighar(Urdu:،شغار،وٹہ سٹہ) is anexchange marriagecommon in Pakistan and Afghanistan.[1][2]

The custom involves the simultaneous marriage of a brother-sister pair from two households. In some cases, it involves uncle–niece pairs, or cousin pairs.[3]Watta sattais more than just an exchange of women from two families or clans; it establishes the shadow of mutual threat across the marriages. A husband who abuses his wife in this arrangement can expect his brother-in-law to retaliate in kind against his sister.Watta sattais cited as a cause of both lowdomestic violencein some families, and conversely for extreme levels of reciprocal domestic violence in others.[1][4]

In Pakistan it is typicallyendogamous,with over 75% marriages involving blood relatives, and 90% of these marriages occurring within the same village, tribe or clan (zaat,biraderi).[5][6]In rural parts of Pakistan,watta sattaaccounts for over 30% of all marriages.[5][7]

Rationale

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The rationale forwatta sattacustom has been theorized as an environment with generally low and uncertain incomes, weak or uncertain legal institutions of the state,watta sattamay be the most effective means available to the poor to prevent marital discord, divorces and domestic abuse.[1]It enables a form of social pressure and reciprocity, wherein a man who abuses his wife is expected to be deterred by the possibility that his own sister will suffer from similar or more severe retaliation by the brother of his wife. In practice,watta sattamay either promote peace in the two families, or (as has also been observed) produce escalating, retaliatory episodes of domestic violence.[8][9]

Bride exchange between two families is also seen as an informal way to limit demands and consequences ofdower(brideprice) and dowry disputes.[10]

Prevalence

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In rural parts of northwest and west Pakistan, and its tribal regions, Watta Satta accounts for over 30% of all marriages.[5][7]

Watta satta is implicitly an endogamous form of marriage. In practice, over 50% of watta satta marriages are within the same village; on a geographical level, over 80% of women either live in the same village of their birth or report being able to visit it and return home in the same day. Over three out of four women in watta satta marriage are married to a blood relative, mostly first-cousins with a preference for the paternal side; of the rest, majority are married to someone unrelated by blood but within the samezaatandbiradari(a form of clan in Muslim communities of Pakistan) or clan.[11][12]

The custom of bartering brides is also observed in Muslim agrarian societies of Afghanistan.[13][14]

In Islamic communities ofMali,bride exchange between two families has also been observed. It is locally calledfalen-ni-falen.[15][16]The practice is prevalent in rural parts of Yemen as well.[17]

In Islam

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Shigharis the practice of exchanging brides between two families, where the girl and dowry of one family is exchanged for a girl and dowry from another family. This is prevalent in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries.[18]This practice is often a means to reduce or evade dowry, and as such is prohibited inIslam,[19]although it is prevalent in Saudi Arabia.[20]Muhammadis reported inSahih Bukhari[citation needed]andSahih Muslim[citation needed]to have said "There is no Shighar in Islam."[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcWatta Satta: Bride ExchangeHanan G. Jacobyand Ghazala Mansuri, World Bank (Washington DC)
  2. ^Latif, Z. (2010), The silencing of women from the Pakistani Muslim Mirpuri community in violent relationships. Honour, Violence, Women and Islam, 29
  3. ^Watta SattaSajid Chaudhry (February 8, 2007), Pakistan Daily Times
  4. ^Niaz, U. (2004), Women's mental health in Pakistan. World Psychiatry, 3(1)
  5. ^abcWatta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women’s Welfare in Rural PakistanHanan G. Jacoby and Ghazala Mansuri, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4126, February 2007 (Washington DC)
  6. ^Charsley, K. (2007), Risk, trust, gender and transnational cousin marriage among British Pakistanis, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), pp 1117-1131
  7. ^abPAKISTAN: Traditional marriages ignore HIV/AIDS threatIRIN, United Nations press service (6 December 2007)
  8. ^Hanan Jacoby;G. Mansuri (2010)."Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women's Welfare in Rural Pakistan"(PDF).The American Economic Review.100(4): 1804–1825.doi:10.1257/aer.100.4.1804.S2CID18781194.
  9. ^M. Zaman; M. Wohlrab-Sahr (2010). "Obstructed individualization and social anomie".Individualisierungen.VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. pp. 155–175.doi:10.1007/978-3-531-92589-9_8.ISBN978-3-531-16983-5.
  10. ^Dead Yemeni Child Bride Was Tied Up, Raped, Says MomApril 10, 2010
  11. ^Jacoby, H. G., & Mansuri, G. (2010). Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women's Welfare in Rural Pakistan, The American Economic Review, 100(4), 1804-1825
  12. ^Shaikh, F. M., & Shah, A. A.CHALLENGES, PROBLEMS AND FACED BY THE RURAL WOMEN A CASE STUDY OF BALOCHISTAN,2009
  13. ^Zaman, M. (2008). SOCIO–CULTURAL SECURITY, EMOTIONS AND EXCHANGE MARRIAGES IN AN AGRARIAN COMMUNITY. South Asia Research, 28(3), 285-298.
  14. ^Lindisfarne, N., & Tapper, N. (1991). Bartered brides: politics, gender and marriage in an Afghan tribal society (Vol. 74). Cambridge University Press
  15. ^Beswick, S. (2012). Brian J. Peterson. Islamization from Below: The Making of Muslim Communities in Rural French Sudan, 1880–1960. The American Historical Review, 117(4), Chapter 5, pp 1329-1360
  16. ^Peterson, B. J. (2004). SLAVE EMANCIPATION, TRANS-LOCAL SOCIAL PROCESSES AND THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN FRENCH COLONIAL BUGUNI (SOUTHERN MALI), 1893–1914. The Journal of African History, 45(3), pp 421-444
  17. ^Yemen's sacrificial bridesApril 14, 2010
  18. ^The Encyclopedia of Islam, Bosworth et al. (Volume VI),ISBN9789004090828,pp 475-476
  19. ^abShighar MarriageFatwa 275, The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2009)
  20. ^Child BridesCynthia Gorney, National Geographic, USA (June 2011)
  • Zaman, Muhammad (2011) Exchange Marriages in South Punjab, Pakistan: A Sociological Analysis of Kinship Structure, Agency, and Symbolic Culture. Frankfurt (M)/ Berlin: Peter Lang Publisher
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