578 killed in the name of honour

LAHORE: A total of 578 Pakistanis including 362 women and 216 men were killed across Pakistan in the name of honour between January and December 2006, figures compiled by the Ministry of Interior reveal.

Compiled on the request of the Federal Women Division, the report places the number of honour killings in Pakistan at around 2,500 to 3,000 cases every year.

The report, however, adds that a good number of honour killing cases still go unreported or are passed off as suicides. Not more than 25 per cent honour killing cases are brought to justice, states the report while calling for tougher laws on domestic violence.

Under Pakistani penal code, honour killings are treated as murder. However, the relevant law states that the family of the victim is allowed to compromise with the killer who is usually a close relative in most of the cases. Provisions of Pakistani law also allow the next of kin of the victim to forgive the murderer in exchange for money. And most of the offenders continue to use this clause to escape punishment.

The gruesome way in which the ears, nose and lips of a man in the Multan city of Punjab were chopped off on January 3 by a group of armed men for marrying a woman of their tribe is being taken by most Pakistanis as a barbaric reminder of just how certain pig-headed segments of the Pakistani society are denying adults the right to marry whoever they want. The ugly incident also shows that while a country like Pakistan may have good laws on its statute books — the recently passed Women’s Protection Bill being a case in point — there is a lot more to be done in terms of changing social attitudes towards women.

The cause of this atrocity, committed on January 1, was a marriage against the feudal traditions. Narrating his ordeal to the media people last week, the victim, Muhammad Iqbal said he tied the knot with Shahnaz, belonging to the Mohata clan, one-and-a-half years ago and had been blessed with a daughter.

Not only Iqbal along with his brother and mother were all stripped and thrown out of their house. Yet, whatever happened with Iqbal is not an isolated incident. Women rights groups in Pakistan have documented 578 incidents of killing for honour from January to December 2006, adding that more than 4,000 males and females have been victims of honour killings in the last six years.