"I cannot hand over my girls like goats"

Imagine you are a college girl from a small town when you get news that you must return home to be married to a stranger or be abducted and raped or killed, and it's your town's leaders who have ordered this.

A village council in Pakistan has decreed that five young women should be abducted, raped or killed for refusing to honour childhood "marriages".
The women, who are cousins, were married in absentia by a mullah in their Punjabi village to illiterate sons of their family's enemies in 1996, when they were aged from six to 13.
Amna Niazi, the eldest of the five at 22, is taking a degree in English literature, while both her sisters want to attend university.

The barbaric tradition of handing over women to resolve disputes is called vani in Pakistan.

The Daily Telegraph was granted access to the young women, despite Mr Niazi's fear that the village will further condemn him for being "un-Islamic" by allowing his daughters to be photographed, albeit with their faces covered by veils.

Amna, who hopes to become an English lecturer, said: "We are proud of our father. Despite having little money, he has educated us and shown us that we must stand up in society and demand our rights."

She is studying at a college affiliated to the university of Lahore, while her sister Abida, 18, is applying to study medicine, and Sajida, 15, is still at secondary school.

The other girls, Assia, 20, and Fatima, 16, are the daughters of Mr Niazi's brothers.