Human rights activists condemned honour killing in a panel discussion on Tuesday titled ‘There is no honour in honour killing’, organised by ActionAid.
Dr Hans Fray, a social scientist, said: “The situation in Pakistan during the early decades of her independence was better and society was progressive enough to shun such practices. But it got worse during the 80’s dictatorial regime. Regressive elements are once again retreating as there are persistent movements against gender discrimination and honour killing.” Sharakat Chief Executive Balqis Tahira said: “Education is the only way to address this issue since most cases of honour killing occur in rural areas where tribal laws and traditions are preferred over the law of the country.
“Lack of education among women makes them more vulnerable to victimisation. Despite having laws against honour killing, the number of such incidents is on a rise. People make fake allegations to settle personal scores against women and their families.” Rukhsana Shama from Actionaid stated: “A woman, instead of being the custodian of her honour and dignity, is supposed to qualify as a symbol of male honour therefore all of her actions are considered to reflect upon her family members.” Samar Minnalla, a human rights activist, said women were exploited by the traditional customs and values and not by the law.
She said: “Tribal jirga system is playing with the lives of poor rural women who because of being uneducated, economically dependent and socially discriminated against cannot plead their own cases.
“Even if a culprit is brought to justice, the male members of the family relinquish their charges and force the victim or her relatives to forgive the culprit. There are issues with legal procedures as the police prefer to file honour killing cases as murder cases,” she said.
A documentary film on honour killing, made by ActionAid, was also presented and sparked a heated discussion among the students present.
They took keen interest in the issue, presented research studies conducted on honour killing and raised various questions which were addressed by the panelists. They said Islam did not allow honour killing and the tribal jirga laws and practices were against the spirit of Islam. They demanded the jirga system be repealed and were told the Sindh government had already banned jirgas from making decisions in honour killing cases but there was no mechanism to keep them in check.
