Honour Killings
-  Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, Islamabad

MANY third world countries are plagued by the excesses of traditionally inclined men seeking to exercise power over the most obvious and easy victim–women.

This is legitimized by an inaccurate sense of morality and social norms. In Pakistan the problem is further compounded by involving morality with religion thereby legalizing grave injustice.

The concept of honor killing sounds barbaric and fictional but unfortunately it is a truth confronting women even day. In Pakistani culture a woman can cause complete disgrace to her family through allegations of an illicit affair, marrying a man of her choice, being subjected to the violence of rape or the merest rumor of impropriety.

This inveterate wrong can only be rectified by executing the woman or defiling women from the family of the man who caused the dishonor!

According to Amnesty International, on an average two women are killed every day in Pakistan for betraying male honor! Consider this excerpt from Amnesty International’s Report: “The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are restricted by traditions that enforce extreme isolation and obedience to men.

Traditional perceptions of honor severely limit some of the most basic rights of women in Pakistan. Every year in Pakistan hundreds of women, of all ages and in all parts of the country are reported killed in the name of honor. Many more cases go unreported. Almost all go unpunished.

The number of such killings appears to be steadily increasing as the perception of what constitutes honor widens.

The flimsiest of suspicions such as a rumor spread in a village, or in one extreme case a man’s dream of his wife’s adultery, is enough to elicit deadly violence. Women are not even given a chance to clear up possible misunderstandings.

Tradition decrees only one method to restore honor-to kill the offending woman.” How do we change this?

By revision of criminal laws to ensure an equal extension of justice to both sexes, making the sale of women in marriage against financial consideration a criminal offense; adoption of legislation that decrees domestic violence a criminal offense and the institution of measures to ensure that law enforcement agencies and judicial officials are made aware of their obligation to enforce it.●

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