ABSTRACT
I married my neighbor. My parents were against the marriage although my husband had come with a formal proposal and asked for my hand. My parents said they wanted one lakh 1 before they gave him permission to marry me. Then my husband sold his land and was willing to give them the one lakh they had asked for. But they still said no. This time they said that he is Punjabi and we are Sindhis 2 and we are of a different biradari [community]. So I ran way with him and we got married anyway. My parents found us eventually and charged us with zina and both of us are in jail. Now they say give us the one lakh we asked for and then we will withdraw the charges. But the money has been spent on hiding from my parents and on lawyers. Now we have no more money. I am afraid that when we are released, that is, my son, my husband, and I, my parents will find us and kill us.
