Pakistani Family Honor Preserved by Murder

Despite the fact that President Pervez Musharraf recently enacted a law making honor killing a capital offense, it continues at a rate of about 1,000 deaths each year. That equates to a rate of just about three a day, every day throughout the year, and it's mostly women that are killed. Here's a recent example.

Arab News:

MULTAN, Pakistan, 21 June 2005 -- A Pakistani poured kerosene over his sleeping wife and daughter and burned them to death in the country's latest example of so-called honor killings, police said yesterday.

The 45-year-old man, named as Jalil Ahmed, snapped after his brother caught his daughter having sex with a neighbor in the remote town of Samasatta, about 105 km south of the central city of Multan, police said.

He rushed back from his workplace in the southern city of Karachi and with the help of his brother tied the 20-year-old girl Shomaila, and her mother to wooden beds as they slept, police officer Arif Nawaz said.

They then set light to the two women - the girl for having an affair and the 40-year-old mother Azeem Mai for "not discouraging her daughter," the police officer said.

The father and uncle were arrested by police and a fugitive third person, a neighbor, is being sought.

Sadly, however, there is no guarantee that those responsible for the murders will be punished. On a local level, Pakistan is governed primarily by tribal councils which often are complicit in the honor killings. In many cases, murderers are allowed to walk by the tribal elders because they ordered the honor killing.

The national government has been attempting to stop the honor killings, mainly due to pressure from the U.S., but it's trying to change a system that has been in place for centuries. There's strong resistance to any change and, as a consequence, progress is slow.

If that wasn't enough, there's also the Islamic court system where cases of honor killings are also tried. Typically, the Islamic courts are at odds with the national judicial system and are generally supportive of the tribal elders.

All in all, the Pakistani judicial mix makes the outcome of any case unpredictable. Often, the perpetrators of honor killings are sentenced to short prison terms or they get a complete walk. And, as a result, women continue to be regularly murdered in the name of honor.