The village council of elders, or jirga, in Grilagan decided the fate of girls given in compensation marriages.
GRILAGAN, Pakistan—Eight months ago, 11-year-old Amna was married off to a man three times her age to settle a crime her uncle had committed.
The uncle had raped another girl in the village, according to tribal elders. Following tribal custom prevalent in highly conservative parts of Pakistan, the elders gave Amna and her 17-year-old cousin, Zulhaj, to that girl's family. Nobody asked their opinion.
Such "compensation marriages" are technically illegal under Pakistani law. But in a country with fraying central authority, the formal judicial system with its slow, corrupt course is often abandoned in favor of traditional tribal justice.
With little faith in the courts, the practice of "swara"—giving away women as punishment for their families—remains an option for settling village disputes in tribal areas dominated by the Pashtun ethnic group in Pakistan's northwest. It also remains prevalent in the tribal-dominated parts of Baluchistan and Punjab provinces.
"People have no trust in the law and the legal system prevailing here," said Muhammad Gul, a member of the village elders council, or jirga, in the village of Grilagan, which decided the fate of Amna and Zulhaj.
"The jirga resolves the dispute in a day. It is the…easiest way."
In Pakistani courts, criminal cases can take up to five years to resolve while civil cases take up to a decade.
The Grilagan girls, from a remote corner of northwest Pakistan, were both married to the brother of the raped girl, who is in his mid-30s. Within Pashtun tribal culture and under Islamic law, men can marry multiple wives.
The younger girl, Amna, has been allowed to stay at her father's house until she reaches puberty, a rare concession to her young age. Even very young girls are usually forced to move into a new husband's home, where they are likely to be treated as domestic slaves and possibly sexually abused.
It isn't clear why the jirga in this case allowed Amna to remain at home.
But local activist Zubair Torwali suggested it may have been because the authorities wouldn't have been able to turn a blind eye to a case involving such a young girl.
Zulhaj is already living in her new husband's home. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal last month in front of the jirga in Grilagan, she said she wasn't being mistreated. But she appeared frightened to speak in front of a room full of the all-male tribal elders.
She said that she was 17, contradicting earlier claims by jirga members that she was 19. Amna was kept hidden.
The Pashto word swara literally describes a woman riding on the back of an animal. It is a reference to the way girls were traditionally handed over in such deals, riding on horseback or donkeys.
The practice was outlawed in November 2011 and authorities don't keep detailed data on compensation marriages, making it difficult to get an exact picture of how common it is. The police will investigate only if a community member alerts them.
Even then, they often register the case as a kidnapping, not a compensation marriage.
Responsibility for clamping down on the practice falls to provincial authorities.
Barrister Zafarullah Khan, a top official in the country's Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, acknowledges that progress has been slow.
"The law has been changed and it is up to the provinces to stop this inhumane practice.
These are mostly tribal societies and [swara] is embedded in the culture and the social beliefs," he said. If people don't report cases to the authorities, they can't intervene, he explained.
"It is a question of evidence. Sometimes you can't find evidence. If no one is willing to come forward, you can't force them."
Samar Minallah Khan, a women's rights activist who has been campaigning against the practice for more than a decade, said she is aware of more than a hundred cases in 2013 alone, and believes that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Grilagan village jirga said they had settled seven disputes through swara in the past nine months.
"The girls are usually immature," said one of the jirga members.
Ms. Khan said villagers often hand over their daughters because they are poor and don't have much else to offer.
"Economic reasons have a lot to do with it," she said.
"The family says we can't give land or money as compensation, so it is convenient to give a girl."
In the tribal cultures of Pakistan, which span a range of linguistic groups across the country, the idea of giving a girl in compensation is closely caught up with a deeply entrenched code of honor. The cultural code dictates that the wronged party has to seek revenge to restore their honor.
In the past, the practice of swara was more symbolic. The girl was handed over as a symbol of peace between the two families and was generally treated with more respect. Today, it has become more about revenge, said Ms. Khan, and the girls are treated as slaves and often sexually abused.
"There is no point treating the girl well because the community expects you to mistreat her," she said. "Unless you rape her and abuse her, you aren't a real Pashtun or Punjabi tribal, they say."
Islam doesn't condone the practice. Under Islamic law, punishment is meant to target the perpetrator, not a related woman or child. The victim's family can seek blood money in compensation.
When Ms. Khan intervenes in swara cases, she said she uses Islam to encourage people to accept a different way of settling disputes.
However, some local Pakistani human-rights activists said swara is the lesser evil as it prevents bloody tribal conflicts sparked by the need to avenge an offense.
"The appearance of swara is very ugly, but it settles disputes of many generations," said Hazer Gul, a human-rights activist from the troubled Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan. The sacrifice of one girl's life is seen as preventing conflict for generations to come. "If we do not allow swara, the repercussions are more harmful," he said.
Khan Saeed, a lawyer from Swat, said communities still use swara to settle disputes because it is viewed as part of their culture, while the formal court system represents a set of alien rules that are hard to understand.
"They prefer to take swara," he said, "It is their perception of the norms, and how they ensure that honor is restored."
Mr. Saeed has intervened in a number of swara cases. He offers his legal services on a pro bono basis to families fighting against swara rulings. In the past five years, he has saved 15 girls from swara, he said, persuading the wronged party to instead accept money as compensation.
A few months ago, Mr. Saeed intervened in a case involving his own cousin who had married a man of her own choice against her family's wishes. Mr. Saeed's uncle demanded a girl from the man's family as compensation, alleging that the man had kidnapped his daughter to marry her. Mr. Saeed said he persuaded the family to accept 100,000 rupees ($1,022) instead.
"It is very difficult to go against the tradition," Mr. Saeed said.
Nadeem Khan Torwali, 23, knows that all too well.
Last October, Mr. Torwali heard that his maternal uncle had approached the village jirga to demand one of his two youngest sisters, ages 11 and 7, in swara for a crime committed 29 years ago. The crime: Mr. Torwali's parents had married in a love match, rather than arranged marriage. His mother had been ostracized from her family as a result.
"Our jirga has only one way to look at it, and it is swara," said Mr. Torwali. He fought against the jirga's ruling and in early March, his uncle agreed to accept 300,000 rupees instead.