At least 550 women were killed for honour in Pakistan during the year 2017, 41 cases of honour killing were reported in Gujrat district of upper Punjab.A year since new laws came into force aimed at stemming the flow of honour killings, scores of young women are still being murdered by relatives for bringing shame on their family.
The shocking murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch by her brother last July turned the spotlight on an epidemic of so-called honour killings and sparked a fresh push to close loopholes allowing the killers to walk free. Long-awaited legislation was finally passed three months later in a move cautiously hailed by women’s rights activists.
But, more than a year on, lawyers and activists say honour killings are still occurring at an alarming pace.
At least 280 such murders were recorded by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan from October 2016 to June of this year – a figure believed to be underestimated and incomplete.
“There has been no change,” Benazir Jatoi, a lawyer who works for Aurat Foundation, told AFP.
“In fact, the Peshawar High Court [PHC] twice acquitted a man of honour crimes after this law was passed,” she added.
“In fact, the Peshawar High Court [PHC] twice acquitted a man of honour crimes after this law was passed,” she added.
The new legislation mandates life imprisonment for honour killings, but whether a murder can be defined as a crime of honour is left to the judge’s discretion.
That means the culprits can simply claim another motive and still be pardoned, said Dr Farzana Bari, a social activist and head of the Gender Studies Department at Quaid-e-Azam University [QAU].
They can do so under Qisas [blood money] and Diyat [retribution] law, which allows them to seek forgiveness from a victim’s relatives – a particularly convenient means of escape in honour cases.
Bari called for a study on the murders of women over the past year to ascertain the scale of the problem.
The convoluted courts system also often sees police encouraging parties to enter blood money compromises, circumventing the beleaguered judicial system altogether.
“Forgiveness and compromise negates justice,” Jatoi said.
Asma Jahangir agreed, telling AFP: “The law will be implemented once the courts function.”
The roots of honour killings lie in tribal social norms which remain prevalent across South Asia and dictate the behaviour of women in particular.
Women have been shot, stabbed, stoned, set alight and strangled for bringing ‘shame’ on their families for everything from refusing marriage proposals to wedding the ‘wrong’ man and helping friends elope. Men can be victims too, but the violence is overwhelmingly aimed at women.
The double standard is glaring. Generally Pakistanis will accept a man who has committed rape, a senior police official who has overseen honour killing investigations told AFP. But “if a woman is even suspected of an affair it is considered a shame for the family and not forgiven,” the official, who asked to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak to media, told AFP.
“People even sympathise [with] and praise the men who murder their women for so-called honour,” he said.
Even when the state does take steps to implement the law – as with the murder of Qandeel Baloch – the wheels of justice often get stuck in the mud.
Baloch achieved notoriety with her social media antics. Her brother Waseem told reporters that ‘of course’ he had strangled his sister, finding her behaviour ‘intolerable’.
At first, Baloch’s heartbroken parents vowed they would give Waseem no absolution. But well over a year later, the trial is still grinding its way through the courts.
This length of time is not unheard of for murder cases, but it has been long enough – as often happens – for Baloch’s father to change his mind.
“I want my son to return home,” Mohammad Azeem told AFP, dismissing Waseem’s proud statements. “My son is innocent.”
Had international revulsion over the killing not seen the state take the unprecedented step of declaring itself an heir alongside Baloch’s parents, their forgiveness could have already seen Waseem walk free.
For Jatoi, the issue goes far beyond the courts – from the elites, where the political leadership fails to understand the issue, to the rural masses, where illiteracy and poverty help perpetuate it.
Rights activists have called for change for years, and the young, urbanised population often take to social media for campaigns such as last year’s #NoMoreKillingGirls.
But Jatoi said Pakistan as a society has been unable to move past the meaning of honour.
“Only when we widely condemn the act will we stop seeing proud murderers… telling of how they killed a woman because she breached an outdated, arbitrary, and patriarchal honour code of which no one knows the rules.”As many as 41 women were murdered on the pretext of ‘preserving honour’ and over domestic disputes in Gujrat during 2017.
The number has increased from the previous year’s 35. In 2013, around 51 women were murdered followed by 36 in 2014.
According to data collected from the district police office, most of the women had been slain by their kin and the complainants in these cases were also family members. However, there was no conviction in these cases as the complainants would reconcile with the suspects.
Most of these murders occurred in rural areas in the jurisdictions of Jalalpur Jattan Saddar, Kunjah, Daulat Nagar and Dinga police stations. The police stations in recently urbanised areas located in the outskirts of the city also reported an alarming number of cases of violence against women. Three women of a family were killed for ‘honour’ in the Civil Lines police precincts besides a few others over the year.
There were 38 cases of women’s murders reported to various police stations in 2017 as compared to 34 in 2016. Some unidentified bodies were also recovered during the last year who did not belong to Gujrat district, including the recently solved blind murder of a woman who belonged to Rawalpindi.
Women were also killed over marriage disputes, domestic issues and various other reasons. A senior police investigation officer told Dawn that he believed culture and traditions were the main reason behind violence against women. He stressed effective legislation and awareness campaigns to contain such violence.
He added that out of the 38 registered cases, suspects nominated in 36 had been arrested and sent behind bars, but such suspects would often be released on technical grounds mainly due to pardoning by and reconciliation with complainants, who were mostly the victim’s relatives.
Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin, chairman of the Punjab Higher Education Commission, says Pakistan had high prevalence of violence against women owing to various factors such as a patriarchal society where gender inequality at various levels was accepted as a norm. Men had assumed higher status in society irrespective of caste, creed, finance and education, he stressed.
“Pakistani society is complex with various ethnic groups, but when it comes to gender inequality almost all groups, classes and sects seem to follow this rule -- although intensity varies. Men are taught that they are superior, and the structure of society has been evolved and developed to give men more power. This unequal power lies at the root of violence against women,” he explained.
Tags:
Women