Woman does not have to return to husband in Pakistan, Supreme Court rules

A mother and her three Irish children will not, following a Supreme Court ruling, have to return to Pakistan where their father wants them to live.

The woman and children fled Pakistan for Ireland in late 2015 and she fears she will be killed if she returns.

She says that while living there, she was beaten by her husband and his two brothers because of her efforts to return to Ireland with her children. She has since been opposing legal efforts by her husband seeking the childrens’ return on foot of an order issued by a court in Lahore.

In May 2017, the High Court rejected his case and the Court of Appeal also rejected it last March.

The Supreme Court, in a written determination, has refused to grant the man a further appeal saying that was not in the interests of justice.

In the early 2000s, the then 18-year-old woman underwent an arranged marriage with her 32-year-old husband in Pakistan. They then lived in Ireland, where he worked, and had three children, all born in the State.

The woman described the marriage as involving no friendship and said she saw the husband as superior and never questioned, at least in the early days of their marriage, what he told her to do.

Islamic culture

The High Court heard the husband was very anxious the children would live in an Islamic culture for a period of time and they lived in Pakistan for 18 months between 2014 and 2015.

He had claimed they were habitually resident there, went to a private school and were “treated like royalty” by his extended family. He claimed the woman made efforts to alienate the children from him, he had no true access to them since their arrival in Ireland and they could only have a meaningful relationship with both parents if they returned to Pakistan.

He also claimed his wife had made multiple suicide attempts in the presence of the children, regularly beat them and, in general terms, was unstable.

The High Court’s Ms Justice Bronagh O’Hanlon, who refused his application, said the husband also felt he ought to have been praised for the “sacrifice in terms of lack of sexual intercourse” with his wife, noting a wife is not, in his culture, entitled to refuse sex with her husband.

In an April 2015 incident when she demanded the children’s passports, she said her husband and his brothers slapped and kicked her until she passed out.

Cleaned blood

The children witnessed this and cleaned blood from her face, she said. The husband claimed he “manually handled” and slapped, but did not kick, her during this incident because he was trying to take a knife from her after she threatened to commit suicide. She denied this and said she never attempted suicide because she would not want to leave her children behind.

With help from her family, the woman managed to get temporary passports for her children and she returned with them to Ireland in November 2015. She was not aware or informed of an order from a Lahore court preventing her removing the children, she said.

A court-appointed independent assessor from Barnardos reported the best interests of the children would be served by remaining in Ireland.