After coming across shocking Halala stories in the UK, we decided to do a little research about the situation in Pakistan. The expected outcomes was that we were not going to find anything significant because the majority reaction from readers to the occurrence of Halala in the UK was that it does not happen in Pakistan.  This could also be because Halala is generally not discussed in the society, nor is it common knowledge that couples actively seek something like this.

Surprisingly, couples are actively seeking Halala services in Pakistan and the internet provides a large variety of options to choose the service provider of your own choice

Many of you must use OLX for buying and selling stuff. The platform is also used by Halala service providers to advertise themselves.

These ads are mainly from metropolitan cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

There is another website called Bazarpk, which also has a couple of ads from Halala service providers.

One website, in particular, has specifically set up a Halala center in Karachi.

Halala services in Pakistan, and elsewhere, are not just limited to online realm but there are controversial stories as well all over mainstream media

A woman was interviewed by a local channel. She was the wife of an imam in a local mosque in Pakistan. Her tragedy is that her husband divorced her six times! And made her go through Halala six times to cover up his lack of control over his sentiments. It was only after the sixth time that she realized that what she was going through was not right. It is not common to challenge the orders of an Imam; the person who is considered to guide the masses.

TV show host Kamran Shahid also dedicated one of his episodes to this practice. The couple in question was one where the husband had divorced the wife and wanted to get back with her. They went to their local Imam who suggested finding people for Halala services. The husband was uncomfortable with the idea and went back to the Imam to suggest another way of remarrying. The Imam then suggested performing the ritual himself to not make the husband uncomfortable and make the process trust worthy. That also did not set well with the guy and he just decided to remarry his wife without Halala.

We may not want to talk about all of this but these issues are quite prevalent in the Pakistani society as well. Just because they are not discussed does not mean that it doesn’t exist. This is one of the issues which must be addressed by the scholars before a lot of couples are exploited by Halala service providers.

Cover image via: Amir Mukhtar / Getty Images