Daily Times

Two star-crossed women were shot dead with a few kilometres and hours between them. One over the much-talked-about patriarchal notion of “honour.” The other, because her brother-in-law deemed her a sitting duck in a family dispute. The death toll can soar even higher if considering the life snatched away from a baby who was yet to come out of the mother’s womb. However, both cases would go down the same path as hundreds before them. Little to no willingness of the bereaved to pursue charges and the memories of those who once walked among them were pushed to some dark, dusty corner. Whether the dismal prosecution results from people trying to save themselves from the hassle of additional troubles or their complicity in the crime, Pakistani women have yet to win the recognition that forces their families and their state to fight their battles.

At the expense of sounding repetitive, these pages have innumerably argued that there remains no honour in honour killings. All killings are horrifying murders and should be condemned as such. Hiding being the convenient covers of shame at finding out those who were supposed to follow your command like lemmings are, in fact, breathing humans who can make their own decisions and cannot hold ground in the twenty-first century. Yet, it still doewill would continue to do so. After all, ours is a country where many from law enforcement agencies to members of the bench silently nod in agreement; buying the sobtale of the accused. Their personal biases manage to tilt the verdict, even in open-and-shut cases of cold-blooded murders.

The numbers are as staggering as they could ever be. The institutionally acceptable mindset that believes in the supremacy of the self-touted defence of “honour” vested in female bodies paved the grounds for 217 murders in just one province last year. That guardians become furious over something as trivial as dancing and do not feel the need to abide by the law within the premises of courts serves as a stark reminder that female lives are not worth much in this land of men. Human Rights Watch claims as many as 1000 women lose their lives to these outlandish notions every year if going by conservative estimates. How many more would meet the same fate depends on the state’s interest in safeguarding the lives and safety of stand under the green-and-white flag. However, by the look of things, those responsible for our affairs have much bigger fish to care for. *