Masarrat is hardly remembered today. Four years ago, as an emaciated girl of 14, she seized the nation's conscience as a victim of "Arab marriages". In two months, she was married to three Arabs, all of. Her grandfather's age. And when arrangements were being made by her father and stepmother to marry her off again, she lodged a complaint. "It is not marriage, it's forced prostitution". Masarrat had told the police then.

Today, not even the Department of Minority Welfare, the Wakf Board and the NGOs that took up her cause know where she is and what she is doing. In Hyderabad, (Arab marriages) continue as poverty and illiteracy dominate the landscape. In the name of family reputation, the helpless girls are told to shut up and bear ... The number of Arabs visiting Hyderabad has fallen in recent times because of the economic recession in the Gulf. The Wakf Board has no records regarding the number of marriages. But brokers in the Old City areas here say that on an average, 20 such marriages are performed in the Old City every month as against 60 to 70 marriages earlier.

Police officials say that matters come to light only when the girl-victim comes forward to lodge a complaint. The Arabs arrive at Hyderabad on a short trip, drive straight to the homes of the brides pre-fixed by brokers, and are married soon after. The parents are paid amounts ranging between Rs.10.000 to Rs.50,000. They take their bridges to their hotel rooms and dump these hapless after a week or so, and then catch flight home ...

This exploitation has made the girls as well as their parents wary ... (Source: The Hindustan Times, 17 August, 2000)