A recent incident of Arabi Kalyanam (marriage of a local Muslim girls with Arab men) in Kozhikode in which a 27-year-old UAE citizen married a 17-year-old Muslim girl from Malappuram district and left for his country 10 days later leaving her to her destiny has shocked Kerala.

Arabi Kalyanams in which Arab men used to marry Muslim girls here exclusively for sexual purposes cashing in on their poverty were a regular feature of social life in Malabar (northern Kerala), especially Kozhikode, a long time ago but the renaissance movement in the Muslim community and legal developments were thought to have brought the practice to an end.

The 17-year-old victim of the latest Arabi Kalyanam has petitioned the police who have registered a case as per the provisions of Child Marriage Prevention Act and for sexual abuse of a minor girl. The victim, an inmate of an orphanage in Kozhikode, was forced into the relationship with enticements and threats by the authorities of the institution.

The UAE national, Jasem Mohammad Abdalkarim Abdullah Al-Mohammad, son of an Arab man and a Malayalee Muslim woman belonging to Kallayi in Kozhikode, had married the girl on June 13 at the orphanage — despite the girl’s objections — giving her a Mahar (bride money) of six sovereigns of gold as per the custom in the Arabian countries.

The girl, daughter of a poor woman from Manjeri in Muslim-majority Malappuram district, said that her 27-year-old “husband” had sexually abused her despite her objections at Kozhikode, Kumarakom and other places. Jasem, who had come to India on a tourist visa, then flew back to UAE on June 30 leaving her back.

The girl, who had just passed her Class XII examinations with good marks, said she wanted only to pursue her studies but it was the authorities of the orphanage, where she had been an inmate from the time when she was in Class I, who had forced her to marry the Arab saying it would benefit her as well as the institution.

It is now known that Jasem Mohammad had married the minor girl hiding his nationality and his address given in the marriage certificate was that of his mother’s house in Kozhikode. It is said that the orphanage was behind this irregularity as well. The State Human Rights Commission has registered a case and asked the DGP, Kerala to file a report on the incident.

The girl said that the orphanage authorities had put much force on her and her mother to agree to the marriage with the Arab. “They told me that he had to leave for UAE in a month’s time and that the marriage should be held within a week,” the girl said. However, officials of the orphanage said the girl had been told about everything related to the matter in detail.

“After marriage he had taken me to several places to hurt me. Then he went to the Gulf leaving me here. It was three days after the Id (Id-ul-Fitr, August 9) that I was informed that he had divorced me. No other girl should ever have to face such experience,” the girl said.

After she was convinced that the Arab and others had cheated her, she approached the orphanage where she had been living but the authorities there refused to help her. They asked her to return to the house of her mother who was living on a meager income derived from the door-to-door sale of women’s nightwear.

However, Adbul Samad, the person who had acted as middleman for the marriage, said that there were efforts for mutual separation but the girl opted to take the incident to the police after she felt that the amount offered as compensation was not sufficient.

The roots of Arabi Kalyanams could be traced to the times when Arabs used to frequent the Kerala coasts for trade. It was thought that the practice had come to an end through the efforts of reformists in the first half of last century and later with the social and educational advancement of the community though some incidents had been reported even in the new millennium.