In Pakistan,gender discrimination is a contoured issue. Due to inaccessibility to fundamental rights, contribution of women to national development remains equal to naught. The world’s human-rights based organizations play a very significant role in protecting women against the violation of their rights. However, with odd practices and norms injected into society, a woman’s position has shrunk to a vulnerable entity.After decades have passed-within a non-dynamic a society-discriminatory practices have been carried down generations with no laws in sight to protect these marginalized women. Patriarchal society is the crux of persecution inflicted upon women.
Surprisingly, standing against the taboos and inflictions from which women suffer, patriarchal culture, values and codes becomes a hindrance to the status quo. This even leads most of the women who are cognizant about their basic rights, to sew their lips shut, rather than face some of the horrifying consequences of speaking up against the traditional patriarchal setup. Dr. Tahira Khan, a noted academic, believes that the concept of honour is deeply rooted within a desire to control female expressions of sexual desires, behaviours and acts. To confine and control the will of a woman, patriarchal institutions draw a parameter within which female agency must operate. This space is mostly restricted to negligible matters within the domestic space.
Unfortunately, the history of honour killing practices in the tribal societies of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is quite dated. Gazetteers published by British colonialists in India show that the customary practice of honour killing, in the western reaches of the empire, was an integral part of a detailed code of honour that regulated tribal social relations.The pronouncement of honour killing meant a virtual death warrant for a woman. A British agent for the Governor General Henry Pottinger noted in his report on his travels from Balochistan and Sindh in 1818, in the territories ruled by the Khan of Kalat, there were certain evidentiary requirements. As Pottinger notes:
Almost 50 percent of all honour killings were carried out by husbands. 19 percent were killed by their brothers, 6 percent by their sons, and 4 percent murdered by their fathers, uncles or other patriarchs
“A man, who discovers his wife committing adultery, may put both to death; but he must bring two respectable witnesses to attest the fact, else it is treated as a case of murder. In the same manner, if he can produce four creditable eye witnesses to his wife’s infidelity, though he himself should not have suspected it, he is at liberty to destroy her and her paramour if he can get hold of her.
The circumstance is then reported to the Khan who, assisted by the mullahs or priests, examines into it, and if the proof is valid, the matter is settled; but should any doubt arise respecting the evidence, the man who has revenged his own supposed wrong, is doomed to the most severe penalty for murder, and the witnesses are given up to the family of the accused person until they can prove assertions. This salutary law equally restrains revenge and accusation.”
The cases of honour killing have never been age-specific. From an eight-year-old girl to an eighty-year-old woman; any female can be the victim of these vicious traditions in Sindh. However a survey, carried out by Sindh Journalists Network for Children (SJN) for United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) during the year 2001, shows that 44 percent of the women killed were between the ages of 15-20 years, whereas six percent were above the age of forty.
Almost 50 percent of all honour killings were carried out by husbands, number of sisters killed by their brothers was 19 percent, while Almost 50 percent of all honour killings were carried out by husbands, 19 percent were killed by their brothers, while 6 percent of the victims were killed by their sons, and 4 percent murdered by their fathers, uncles etc.According to different studies conducted recently by the UNICEF, Shirkatgah, Aurat Foundation Pakistan; at present valid proof has very little space in honour killings.
On a more positive note people have started living in cities.Such migration of people towards cities has greatly changed the concept of tribal codes which were set in villages. Changes in behaviour as a result of migration decreased honour killings, as the role of laws and the police discouraged potential aggressors. However the rural tribal areas still operate according to such rigid, violent and unjust tribal codes. Consequently, efforts to remove traditional laws that threaten the well-being of women and young girls must be taken as an utmost priority.
Writer is researcher and freelance contributor. He tweets at @ejaza543
Published in Daily Times, August 20th 2018.