BBC News Online: World: South Asia

A fight for forbidden love

Mahmoud and Humaira fell in love and secretly married before fleeing the bride's home in the Punjab. They are now in hiding in the southern city of Karachi, fearing that her family will find them and kill them.

Humaira's father, a powerful politician of the ruling party, refused to accept the union saying she was already married and is committing adultery.

Claiming that their honour is at stake, they are demanding that she return home. The maximum potential penalty for adultery is to be stoned to death.

But the young couple claim that Humaira's father was trying to force her to marry a relative and that they fled after she was beaten. They fear they could be killed at any time.

Mahmoud, who spoke to our correspondent Richard Galpin under disguise, is desperate to save his wife from her family.

"Everbody knows they will kill her. If she goes to the Punjab - the police are with them and they will take her to the village and they never kill easily, they will kill badly, they will make small, small pieces of her.

"Please save her, we don't want to die," he said.

Mahmoud believes they should be allowed to leave immediately for New York where he and his family are based.

Under protection

Authorities have placed Humaira in a special government hostel under armed guard for her own protection.

She cannot even be visited by her husband. But, based on past experience, he is still not convinced that she will be safe.

When they first arrived in Karachi, Humaira was placed in another privately-run home where she spend time with disabled children. But her brother, sent by her family to track her down,broke in with a raiding party from the police and dragged her away.

The hostel manager, Miss Roshan, said it was an unprecedented move.

"They dragged her by her arms through the building. She was begging everyone around not to let them take her away as they were going to kill her. She said they'd cut her into pieces."

Human rights groups intervened in her case at the last minute, forcing the police to take her back from her family and protect her.

Now the human rights commission and women's groups are fighting in the courts to try and quash the accusations of adultery brought by Humaira's family.

But even if they win the legal battle, Uzma Noorani from the Women's Action Forum assumes the couple will never be safe in Pakistan.

"Humaira and Mahmoud would have to leave the country because they would not be safe over here. The laws of this land do not favour women's rights.

"So far even the state has not supported them and we have a government which is always trying to impose laws which push women behind,"she said.

Limited options

But fleeing abroad has proved to be difficult in past so-called Romeo and Juliet cases.

Relatives of another couple, Riffat and Ahsan, have been trying for almost a year to request asylum for them.

Even though Ahsan was shot and critically wounded by his wife's family, his brother, Asad Sarfaraz, says he is still in hiding in Pakistan waiting for help.

"I'm afraid there's no response at all whenever I try to contact embassies all of them say they do not fulfill the criteria required for asylum. It is very unfortunate, if they are in their own country they cannot apply for asylum and if they go out of the country they cannot get any visas," he said.

While Humaira and Mahmoud have received much media attention, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other cases in Pakistan which never come to light.

For all these people the only short term solution is to seek asylum abroad, and yet despite the obvious danger to their lives the international community frequently seems unwilling to help.

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