Student faces expulsion due to marriage (an old article)

.JUNE 7: The Peshawar High Court has decided to discuss the matter of Ghairat Khan’s expulsion from Peshawar Model School

(Boys-III) on June 9, 2010. The expulsion had been influenced by Ghairat Khan’s, a seventh grader, marriage to a 16 year old girl.

The Child Marriage Restraint Act of Pakistan restricts the marriage of minors; the legal age for marriage 18 for boys, and 16 for girls. Ghairat Khan, a seventh-grader, supposedly of 13 years of age, was rusticated from the school because “according to school rules, a married student cannot study in our school because it affects other children when they share their stories,” Beatrice Jamil, the principal of PMS, told the AFP.

No law in Pakistan however, permits the expulsion of a student due to a marriage, as confirmed in a statement issued by Peshawar's Education Minister, Fazli Ali Haqqani. “Under Islamic law, minors can marry with the consent of their parents,” said Khan’s lawyer, Isa Khan, as reported by CNN.

Under the petition filed by Ghairat Khan, he explains that he is 18 years of age, not 13, as registered in his school record. In Peshawar, it is not uncommon for students to start schooling late, or being held back several grades due to poor school records.

Ghairat Khan, who married his 16 year old cousin, is contesting the school's decision on the grounds that his marriage was completely consensual and legitimate. The issue arose when Beatrice Jamil expressed concern over the negative impact the marriage of a classmate would have on the children; playground topics of discussion now bound to lean on relatively mature subjects.

“The court’s decision will set an important precedent, since this is by no means an isolated case, and could affect many other students in similar positions” says Issam Ahmed, a correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor. “It’s also interesting from a legal point of view. Will they rule in favour of universal education for all or not? And if he is a minor, can he be held accountable for breaking the law, or should his marriage simply be ruled null and void?”

“I want to go to this school,” said Ghairat Khan, when asked by CNN about the petition. Besides asserting that the marriage

violated neither the Child Marriage Restraint Act, nor the Islamic Shariah Law, he cited family troubles to be the reason behind the marriage. The wedding took place after the boy’s father’s death, when the family, facing hard times, needed another member to help Ghairat Khan’s ailing mother with the household.

The principal and director of Peshawar Model School have been summoned to court on June 9th, 2010. When asked by the Times

of India on June 7, 2010, the board stated their decision to readmit Gheirat Khan if the school lost the case.

"We will implement court's decision," said Sardar Hussain Babak, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Education Minister, on a News 24 broadcast.

Jamil's concerns are valid, but there is no way to stop external factors influencing students. Even if there were no married students, is it not reductionist to assume that this is the only way they might be exposed to mature topics?