Daily Times

Women in our country are subjected to various kinds of abuse and persecution. Rape, domestic violence, forced marriage, acid attacks, and honour killing are a few of the most common injustices that a Pakistani woman undergoes in our patriarchal society. Honour killings are prevalent throughout the country, although in some areas, incidents of honour killings have been alarmingly high in the recent years. Sadly, Sindh is on the top of the list.

Figures collected by various research organisations in this regard are quite startling and heart wrenching. According to one estimate, Pakistan has the highest volume of documented and estimated honour killing per capita of any country in the world; about one-fifth of the world’s honour killings take place in Pakistan-1,000 out of the 5,000 per year).

If we look into interior Sindh, feudal, tribal and patriarchal values govern all aspects of the lives of women, and they are treated as objects. Customs and practices are often an expression of these values; women are treated as objects, and are used for personal purposes-provided as compensation to enemy to settle disputes, sold, bought, exchanged, damaged, and killed.

Every day, a woman is killed in the name of honour in Sindh. No action is taken against the perpetrators. This is Sindh for you.

Just to highlight for my readers, according to the UDHR article three: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Article seven says: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.” Article 16 states: “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to find a family.” Pakistan is signatory to this international covenant but it is of no use.

Due to rampant male chauvinism and patriarchy in our society, many good practices are not encouraged. Women are seen as a commodity, owned and controlled by their fathers, husbands and brothers. If a woman goes against the will of her so-called male owners, and weds according to her own choice, she is brutally killed in the name of honour.

How we can forget Rimsha Wassan, an innocent girl from Kotdiji Khairpur, who was brutally murdered by a few influential persons of interior Sindh? Nothing concrete has been done in this matter; only arrests have taken place. Arresting the culprit/s is not enough; we as a nation want justice for this cold-blooded murder. Hereby, again, I want to appeal to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to take action in this matter.

The question is why honour killings are so common in Sindh. I believe it’s because of the feudal system that is prevalent in Sindh. Feudal lords are the ones who carry out this injustice. Some are even sitting in parliament. They are the lawmakers. The state has failed to protect the general masses of interior Sindh.

According to one estimate, Pakistan has the highest volume of documented and estimated honour killing per capita of any country in the world

Feudal system exists powerfully in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh. Feudal lords in Sindh have large landholdings, and a huge number of private guards, who can kill or be killed for them. All of that provides social, economic, political, and personal protection. Consequently, there is a very strong influence of local elites in all parts of Sindh, and that has a direct affect on all aspects of the lives of common people. Feudal lords also enjoy control over government institutions-police, courts, district administration, education, and health. In the local language there are many terms for the rural elite, the feudal lord: sardar, wadero, raees, pir.

Saira Ali, a socio-political activist and the focal person of the National Women Support Group said, “Murders of Sindhi women in the name of karo-kari(‘honour killing’) are rapidly increasing. Sindhi women are the worst victims of domestic violence, and they are deprived of their basic rights. Within Khairpur, many Sindhi Hindu girls are a victim of forced conversions.” She further said, “We demand that suspects involved in such crimes must be punished. Government should take steps to stop the increase in the crime of karo-kariin Khairpur and other parts of Sindh. Killing of women in Sindh seems to take place openly. Unfortunately, laws have glaring gaps through which such issues slip. Courts must not leave any space for murderers to wiggle out, and society, as a whole, must condemn this heinous crime as barbaric and inhuman. Murderers must be given an exemplary punishment and maximum penalty. There is a serious lack of awareness in police and law enforcement agencies about women rights.”

The pro-women laws fall short of providing actual protection to survivors and victims, and ensuring punishment for perpetrators and supporters of the heinous crime of killing in the name of honour. If we talk about the Qisas and Diyat provisions in the PPC, some major lacunas, in effect, have rendered the law useless. The problem lies not just in the law itself but also in its implementation. With the implicit consent of society, murderers are given protection and impunity from within the community, which extends to the police, courts and other law enforcement agencies. Apart from the inherent biases within these bodies, problems also lie with the methods of investigation, and a lack of updated machinery and tools.

Professor Dr Faryal Ashfaq said, “Implementation of existing laws in Sindh and provision of justice must be ensured so that any discrimination can be immediately reported and duly taken care of. Making a law is one thing, implementing it is another. Government should make legal action committees at the grassroots level, dedicated to overseeing women issues. Steps need to be taken to make sure that the state-sanctioned rule of law and institutions are accessible to women. The Sindh government should introduce emotional intelligence training workshops in all government schools, colleges and universities so that such issues can be lessened.”

Naghma Iqtidara human rights defender, said that education is the only solution to the practice of honour killing. She said, “Most cases of honour killings 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.”

I believe that the archaic feudal and tribal system is to be blamed for such inhuman acts. Tribal courts or jirgas are quite common in several parts of Pakistan. It is believed that one of the factors prompting people to approach tribal courts is the lengthy and slow government court procedure that can take years to settle even a minor dispute.The Supreme Court has declared jirgas illegal and unconstitutional, but I know that many lawmakers hold jirgas, and hand down various sentences. In the long term, nothing can be done unless feudalism is abolished.

We should consider women rights as human rights. We as a nation need to speak up regarding the rights of women, and take a clear stance against all who stop women from rising. We have to be clear that women do nothave a status lower than that of men, and that they are both equal.

The writer is a Lahore-based social and political activist. He tweets at Salmani_salu, and can be reached at salmanali088@gmail.com