The age-old Bride bazaar continues to flourish on the back of a well-oiled network of brokers in the poverty-stricken parts of the Old city, with Muslim women increasingly falling victims to the trade.
According to the activists, thousands of young women have been married off to the cash-rich foreign nationals and the lives of many more are at stake.
The bride bazaar has been in business since 629 AD, it began in Kerala and was called Arab-kalyanam aka one-night marriages. Since Kerala back then was famous for its spices, this Arab sheikh use to visit for trading purposes and to fulfill their own desires would destroy young teenagers lives.
Today, the system of the whole bride bazaar is organized and the main model is of the broker, the middleman who makes the most money out of this. Its shocking that the huge percentage of the brokers are women.
The so-called husbands from across the world, buy brides for a partly sum, use them as sex slaves for a fortnight or a month in hotels and lodges and then fly back solo to their countries.
Activists mentions that areas like Vattepally, Golconda, Kalapather, Babanagar, Tadban, Talabkutta, Shaheennagar and Barkars are the hotbeds for the trade ,in areas as such are located porch houses but inside those heaven looking houses is the flesh of those Adolescent girls.
In the early days, there would a ramp walk along the house with dressed up teenage brides and the cash-rich sheikh’s would choose the one and give them a money token. Once the fake Marriage certificate is signed they use them for the time period they are in the city and divorce them the second before they leave the country, if seen all together it’s a legalised prostitution. One example for the whole bazaar system is the Massarat case, the young women was married seven times in a month.
But now, says Rafia Nausheen , an activists working with the NGO Mahita, “after the marriage is finalized the women are not allowed to step out of the houses. For instance , a young girl who went to Dubai as a maid was forcibly married and sexually harassed. She was about to be sold off to another men when she ran away and managed to come back to Hyderabad.”
