Honour Killings

 
I don't know this as a matter of fact, but I doubt that even Sharia law provides for the life of a human being (normally a woman) to be taken because she has allegedly 'dishonoured' her family. 

But here are two horrific cases from Pakistan where two young women have been brutally murdered, one of them in a public place outside the High Court in Lahore where people must have stood aside and watched a medieval punishment being inflicted on a fellow citizen. 

The problem is compounded if you ask me, by the fact Pakistan is such a backward, intolerant country with a penal code that still considers blasphemy and apostasy as terrible crimes which are punishable by death.  

I imagine that this highly toxic view of political Islam is what Boko Haram would like to see in Nigeria, perhaps by adding a few extra 'crimes' to the fundamentalist charge sheet such as the death sentence for young girls and women seeking an education.   

Pakistan acid attack parents 'feared dishonour'

A couple arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of killing their 15-year-old daughter with acid say they carried out the attack because she looked at a boy.

The girl's father told the BBC that they feared she would bring dishonour on their family. Her mother said it was her "destiny" to die that way.

The couple were arrested in Pakistani-administered Kashmir last week.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 943 women died in so-called honour killings last year.

That represented an increase of more than 100 from 2010.

Police say that the incident took place in a remote village in the southern district of Kotli. They say that the case was brought to their attention by the couple's eldest daughter.

The girl, known only as Anusha, was found to have burns over 60% of her body. Her father Muhammad Zafar told the BBC what happened:

"There was a boy who came by on a motorcycle. She (Anusha) turned to look at him twice. I told her before not to do that, it's wrong. People talk about us because our older daughter was the same way," he said.

Her mother Zaheen described the aftermath: "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way."

Anusha's father is reported to have taken his daughter inside, beaten her and then acid was poured over her with the help of his wife. Officials say that the couple did not take their daughter to hospital until the following morning.

The couple say that an older daughter had already disgraced the family and they did not want to be dishonoured again.

Police say this is one of the first cases of its kind in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, where such killings are relatively rare.

In March the government of Pakistani-administered Kashmir made acid attacks a criminal offence punishable with life imprisonment.

Pregnant bride stoned by her family

Police collect evidence as a crowd gathers around the body of Farzana Iqbal, 25Mohammad Tahir/Reuters

Annabel Symington - The Times

A 25-year-old Pakistani woman who was three months pregnant was stoned to death by her family outside the High Court in Lahore for marrying the man she loved.

Farzana Parveen was waiting with her husband, Mohammad Iqbal, for the court to open when she was cornered and attacked with bricks by a mob of men that included her father, two brothers and former fiancé.

The couple had gone to the high court to record a statement in front of a judge that Ms Parveen had married by choice and had not been kidnapped, as had been alleged by her father.

She was taken to hospital with severe head injuries and pronounced dead on arrival.

The police have arrested only Ms Parveen’s father, who is believed to have admitted to the killing. He described it as a matter of honour. The other men involved in the killing fled the scene and have not been caught, said a senior police officer, Umer Cheema.

Mr Iqbal, 45, said he had started seeing Ms Parveen after the death of his first wife, with whom he had five children. “We were in love,” he said. His new wife was three months pregnant at the time of the attack.

Honour killings are common in Pakistan, though it is unusual for the attack to happen in a public place. More than 1,000 women are killed in Pakistan each year in so-called honour killings, according to the Aurat Foundation, a Pakistani women’s rights body — although the real figure may be much higher, as most go unreported.

Few cases of honour killings ever make it to court, and prosecutions are rare.

Ms Parveen had been engaged to her cousin but broke it off to marry the man she loved. They married three months ago in a small ceremony in her husband’s village, Jaranwala, to the west of Lahore.

Love marriages are often seen as bringing dishonour on a family, and in extreme cases killing the girl is viewed as the only way to restore a family’s honour.

The killings are usually carried out by the family itself. Police in rural areas often turn a blind eye to such incidents, dismissing them as family matters.

Lahore is the second-largest city in Pakistan, and honour killings are not common in built-up areas. Questions have been raised as to why no one intervened in the attack on Ms Parveen.

“Have we become a land of silent spectators?” asked Tahira Abdullah, a women’s rights activist based in Islamabad. Ms Abdullah said that multiple laws that offer protection to women in Pakistan have been enacted over the years, but the situation for women and girls in Pakistan was getting worse.