Barbarism in the name of tradition

Not a week goes by without news of another young girl being married off to an older man as compensation for a family feud. Most recently, according to press reports, a panchayat in Vehari, Punjab, decided to give a five-year-old girl to a 40-year-old man as punishment for her father eloping with the man's sister. Ironically, the father had already left with the woman, and the girl and her mother, who was grieving her husband's infidelity, were left behind to bear the consequences.