The term honour killing may be defined as the murder of a female whether a girl or women by male member of a family. The accused more often justify their actions by claiming that the victim has brought dishonour to the family. It can be result of number of reasons including refusing from forced marriage, being victim of sexual assault, claiming divorce from abusive partner, allegedly committing adultery.
Statistics of honour killing
The total population of Pakistan is 170 million and each day at least three women killed for the purpose of so-called honour killing. Approximately honour crimes more often are committed in Pakistan. Almost every year 1000 women are killed in the name of honour killing. The term honour keeps many meanings in the society of Pakistan which may be respect of family and social reputation. Women faces disrespect and shame by losing honour. As a lot of acts are considered disgraceful but nothing is more important than female chastity. The chastity of a women must be preserved in order to keeps family honour. In case of violation to families honour and reputation, the offender must be killed. The purpose of this approach is deemed to be the compensation of such violation, in honour bound societies. (Knudsen, 2004: 2, 4)
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It can be clearly seen that the cases of honour crimes have increased in Pakistan. According to a report of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, approximately 2000 women were subjected to honour killing in the year of 2005-2008 and there was increase of 647 honour crimes in 2009. Another statistics shows that 737 honour crimes were documented between June 2017 and August 2018 which is a disturbing rate. This is an incredible increase irrespective of fact that the human rights activists are playing their role efficiently in this regard. (HRCP Report 2008).
Legal action taken against honour killing
The government of Pakistan has done legislation in this regard and has passed an anti-honour bill in order to reduce honour killing according to which the accused will be sentenced to imprisonment for 25 years and will not be pardoned even if the family of the victim do so. Nowadays a lot of NGOs and many other organizations are working for spreading the awareness about honour killing
Cases of honour killing in Pakistan:
The examples of honour killing can be cited as:
- The case of Qandeel Bloch, who was a Pakistani celebrity was killed in 2016 by her own brother in the name of honour. The reason behind her murder was her profession as cited by her brother.
- In 2016, a British woman of Pakistani origin named Sana Cheema was killed by her father and ex-husband, when she came to Pakistan for visiting her relatives. She was killed because she married a man whom she loved.
Reasons for honour killing
Marrying person outside the caste or religion, Desire for divorce, disobeying the dress code given by the community to the females, Adultery, Refusing Arranged marriage, Rape and above all illiteracy becomes the cause of honour killing. Illiteracy is the biggest reason behind the honour killing as the people of the rural background associates the concept of honour killing with the Islam. While Islam has given Women their rights. They even have been given the right to marry the person of their choice. Islam in no way allows honour killing and violence against women to protect a family’s honour has not been recommended by Islam as just
Effects of honour killing
Honour Killing have many effects on our society. Due to honour killing, the family system and women development is disturbed. Victim of the honour crimes suffer from physical illness, psychological problems, social boycott by the family and community and economic deprivation.
Recommendations
The awareness of importance of education for all genders must be encouraged throughout the country specially in trial and rural areas as education is the basic cure for every evil. Though a number of laws has been made in order to protect the rights of women but their implementation is still in vague, these laws must be enforced to secure the rights of female. For the security of women many shelter homes and special helplines should be established so that the aggrieved women could feel secure there.
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