A young girl on 24th July was shot dead allegedly by her father in the name of ‘honour’ in Akhundani village in Jhal Magsi district. Regrettably, she was not the only one who had to face this brutality, there have been countless cases that Pakistan has faced, only increasing with time. A young mother of two sons was shot dead by a family acquaintance because she had sought divorce from an abusive husband. Another woman was shot dead in front of a tribal gathering after she had been repeatedly raped by a local government official and not many days back, a 25 year old girl Farzana in love with a man got married to him by her own choice. She must have had a lot of dreams for her new family and the future of the child she was supposed to give birth to. This three-month pregnant woman was beaten to death with bricks by members of her own family because in their judgment, she had dishonored her family’s opinion by marrying a man without their preference.
These brutal assassinations are based on the belief that a woman is the possession of her family. For whatever reason, should the woman’s virtue come into question, or if she refuses to act upon her father, husband or brother’s view, her family’s “honor” is thought to be put to shame and the woman must be killed by a male relative to restore the family’s reputation in the community. Often, women are killed because of mere suspicion that they have engaged in illicit sexual doings or immoral act according to the murderer’s opinion. Honor killings are part of a culture, not a religion, and occur in Arab communities, in the United States and many other countries. The reason for these killings is that many families tie their reputation to the women. If she does something wrong, the only way to rectify the family’s honor is to have a wife, daughter, sister killed as in their opinion blood purifies honor. Even if they love the woman, they consider it their duty to kill her. It is important to realize that people who commit the killings are also victims in their own way. Their families put all the burden and pressure on their back. If you don’t kill, you are responsible for the family’s dishonor. If you do kill, you will be a hero and everyone will be proud of you.
It is estimated that, in Pakistan, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, more than 1000 women were victims of these crimes in 1999. According to Aurat Foundation’s statistics, collected for its reports on violence against women, a total of 557 women were killed in the name of honor in Pakistan in 2010, whereas 604 women in 2009 and 475 women were killed in 2008.
The dilemma in Pakistan is that such killers are treated with leniency and these crimes are socially sanctioned to a level that once in Pakistan, a serving senator supported honor killings during a Senate discussion on the murder of a girl in 1999. Although it may be noted that so-called “honor killings” tend to be prevalent in countries with a majority Muslim population, many Islamic leaders and scholars have condemned the practice and denied claims that it is based on religious doctrine.
In 2004, some legal amendments were made to Pakistan Penal Code to address the issue of honor crimes through an act of Parliament. This victory when after relentless efforts of women’s rights organizations and committed activists, along with active women in political parties was soon shrouded into disappointment because the law did not offer any headway and turned out to be ineffective. Despite protests and reservations by civil society organizations and women rights activists like Shahla Zia
and Maliha Zia Alvi of Aurat Foundation, the original bill prepared by Shahla Zia was being severely mutilated with the final outcome that its most vital clauses were dropped when it was passed by the National Assembly.
The troubles lie not just in the law itself but in its implementation. With the unspoken consent of society, the murderers are given protection and impunity from within the community, which extends to the police and even courts. Apart from the inbuilt biases within these bodies, problems also lie with the methods of investigations, lack of up-dated machinery and tools etc. Law in the patriarchal countries has sustained the cultural tradition that women have an inferior status. Men are only mildly punished or not punished at all for murdering a female relative whose behavior is judged as bringing dishonor to the family.
To combat the epidemic of honor killings requires understanding that these murders differ from plain homicides, revenge killings, and domestic violence. Their inspiration is different and based on codes of morality and behavior that typify our culture, often reinforced by fundamentalist religious dictates. It now becomes necessary to go beyond merely protesting, identifying the gaps in the law and to move on to the government taking responsibility in identifying different strategies to conduct proper investigations into such cases and arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of these horrific crimes.
published on july 27th, 2014 in dailytimes
No comments:
Post a Comment