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Coming of age was a painful experience for the three Khan sisters.

They discovered they'd been promised in marriage to their enemies when they were children, a practice in Pakistan known as vani.

"When we grew up we came to know that a great injustice had been done to us," says Abda Khan, now 18.

"Vani is equal to a murder. If we were to marry those boys, it would be the same as killing us."

Vani is a tribal custom in which blood feuds are settled with forced marriages.

The bride spends her life paying for the crime of her male relatives.

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"If the government does not help us, we will commit suicide."

Their father, Jehan Khan Niazi, is their strongest supporter.

He says he agreed to the vani at gunpoint, but has moved his daughters away from the village so they could get an education.

"They stand against this because they are educated," he says.

"Illiterate girls cannot understand and express themselves. My daughters are innocent, why should I infringe on their rights and their demands."