By Kamal Siddiqi
January 17,
2021
In a
shocking incident this month, a 17-year-old engineering student in Charsadda
was killed allegedly for the crime of speaking to his female cousin. The
student, a resident of the Mandani village of the district, was shot and killed
for spending time with his cousin and studying with her. His body was found in
the fields of his village. The victim was a position holder at Islamia College,
Peshawar, who had come back to his village after the college closed due to
Covid restrictions. His father was a day labourer who had to borrow money to put
his son in college. None of this mattered to the alleged murderer, a close
family member, whose misplaced notions of honour robbed an innocent person of
his life.
While the
murderer has been arrested by the police, it is feared that like most other
cases, this too will end up without justice being served. Statistics on honour
killings in Pakistan are not as accurate as they should be. Many such incidents
are not even reported. But the two consistent elements are that most of the
cases of such killings end up without a conviction for the accused and that
most of the victims, unlike the Charsadda incident, are women. Honour killings
occur all over the country under various names like kala-kali (Punjab),
karo-kari (Sindh), tor-tora (K-P) and Siya-kari (Balochistan).
One report
estimates that a combination of loopholes in the law, police incompetence and
poor prosecution has led to only 2% of the people involved in honour killing
being punished. In most of the cases, the police push for a compromise between
the two parties. The matter never ends up in court. It is a never-ending story.
Two years
back, I wrote about three women and a man who lost their lives in three
separate cases of alleged honour killing in Sukkur and Matiari districts in a
space of a few days. I used these examples to show how common and how prevalent
this practice had become. In that short period of time, one woman was shot dead
in Khuram village near Sukkur by her husband, Akram Jagerani, who suspected her
of having illicit relations with a man in their village. Jagerani also shot and
killed another man in the incident. After committing the murders, Jagerani fled
the village to avoid arrest. In another incident, a mother of three was gunned
down by her brother in Matiari. She was killed because her brother “suspected
her character”. After committing the murder, the accused surrendered to the
police and confessed his crime. In the third such case, a mother of three, was
shot dead by two cousins in Bahram. The accused, Mohammad Lashari and Nazal Khan
Lashari, killed their cousin because they suspected her of having illicit
relations with her brother-in-law while her husband, Feroze, was out of the
house.
I took
these three examples to illustrate how similar they were in the manner the
crime was committed. Unfortunately, the similarity doesn’t end there. Like
hundreds of other such cases, the perpetrators of these crimes will almost
never be brought to justice. What are we doing about this? Not much. Fast
forward to 2021 and the situation hasn’t changed much. On an average, as many
as 500 women and girls are murdered in honour killings each year making
Pakistan one of the most dangerous countries for women. These victims are not
just statistics: they are mothers, daughters and sisters and their deaths
destroy families. In most instances unfortunately, it is close family members
who kill them.
According
to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) data, 1,957 incidents of honour
killings had been recorded over the past four years. This is higher than what
the government reports. The average rate of honour killings in women between
15-64 years was found to be 15 per million women per year. This may be yet
another dubious world distinction we have achieved. The late Amina Jilani, a
renowned columnist, once commented that it is high time that the pernicious
mendacious phrase ‘honour killings’ be expunged from the lexicon of what has
become known as the ‘Muslim world’ and this particular Islamic Republic could
take the lead. There should, in this 21st century, be no murders that are
justified by the claim of upholding a non-existent ‘honour’. We should call
them by what they are — dishonour killings.
Original Headline: Dishonour killings
Source: The Express Tribune
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/there-be-no-murders-that/d/124092
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism