Contradiction in terms
Once more a grave miscarriage of justice – in this case Qandeel Baloch’s ‘honour killing’ – has embarrassed the government into some sort of action that will play the right optics for the moment. And so the PM’s daughter tweeted and the two houses of parliament will soon pass the anti-honour killing and anti-rape bills. But haven’t we been down this road before? At least a good part of it? And when the extreme right does not put a spanner in the works the politicians’ own lack of interest, once the breaking news aspect subsides, lets the initiative fade into oblivion.
What guarantee is there, therefore, that the government is more serious this time? This is a country where even modest figures put the number of annual honour killings at approximately 500. Qandeel caught the public’s attention because of her larger than life personality. But there are hundreds, if not thousands, more who meet the same fate every day at the hands of those who should, ordinarily, protect them. And many, many cases of rape – because justice is so scarce – are not even reported to shield the victim, and the family, from further shame, etc.
The government needs to understand that passing legislation – as necessary as it is – is not the solution to these problems. Crimes like honour killings betray a herd mentality that is detached from reality. For normal people honour cannot really be associated with crime, especially killing; the two would be contradictory. For a society that has grown too used to killing in the name of honour, the government is also responsible for carefully crafting a concise narrative that counters such inherent psychological trends. And, of course, the guarantee of severe punishment for those still found indulging must go hand in hand with the counter-indoctrination. If the government does not back its words with visible, quantifiable action this time, nobody will take its promises seriously in the future.
