Watchdog

The parents of a 6-year-old girl in Pakistan's Swat Valley say tribal authorities are forcing them to marry off their daughter to resolve a family feud.

A jirga tribal assembly in the village of Ashari ruled that the girl, Bibi Roza, should be married to a member of a rival family in order to resolve a dispute between the two clans.

The parents have appealed to a Swat court to have the ruling overturned, and local police now say they will attempt to block the wedding, which is scheduled for November 11.

Swara, the practice of exchanging women and girls to settle personal feuds, is common in Swat and other parts of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

But exchanges involving girls as young as 6 are considered extremely rare.

Sources in Tehran say that eight female inmates in Evin prison have stopped their hunger strike and plan to pursue legal action against prison guards whom they accuse of mistreating them.

Nine women started the hunger strike last week to protest beatings and insults by the guards.

One of the women ended her hunger strike earlier after she was hospitalized due to her deteriorating health.

Earlier, the international media-rights group Reporters Without Borders urged the women to begin eating, fearing they could die.

Three of the women are journalists and online activists.

Jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh continues her hunger strike in the same prison.

She stopped eating on October 31 after prison authorities banned her relatives from visiting.

Last month, Sotoudeh was awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought for 2012.

Jailed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi also won the prize.