Daily Times

Honor crimes are a term used widely to refer to the killing or harm induced on persons, usually women, for the protection of the perpetrator’s honor. A simplistic definition of honor killings is, ‘an act of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.’ A recent report submitted by the Sindh Police self-sufficiently elaborated the extent to which our society – including the criminal justice system itself – continues to justify, condone and encourage violence against women under the guise of tradition and faith. As per the report, in the last five years, 510 women and 259 men have been murdered in cold blood on the name of ‘honor’ across the province. Out of the total number of cases, 649 reached the police. However, only 19 cases – hardly two percent resulted in punishment. The courts acquitted the suspects in 136 other cases, while the remaining 494 cases still await trial. Moreover, the report, compiled by the police, recorded statistics from January 31, 2019 to January 30, 2020 according to which, 126 people, who were suspected of being involved in the ‘honor killings’, had been arrested. Challans of 81 cases pertaining to ‘honor killings’ were presented in courts while 32 are still being investigated.

The tradition of honor killing has been rampant in a number of societies and is not circumscribed to present day Pakistan or as some times mistakenly believed, Islamic Society. Honor killing has been reported in the other parts of the world and supported by documented work in countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Brazil.

Peonage, exploitation and mortification of humans are timeworn and wide spread. The woman has been witnessed to be abused, emulated and treated brutally since the beginning of civilization and certainly since the rise of city states. The importance of increasing the population and providing the labor power of evolving city states led to the commoditization of women whose sexuality and reproductive capacity became the first ‘property’ for which the tribes competed.

Agrological evidence suggests that women were not always treated with cruelty and that they probably suffered a decline in status with the emergence of urban center and city states. There is some evidence seen from Neolithic settlement in Asia Minor for platforms hinting at their highest social status. In the same side woman is also shown hunting alongside man in cave painting. As men are buried with their weapons, women are interred with their jewelry in similar pomp. Many anthropologists attribute the higher status of women to their fecundity, strength, and their role in creating religion at their times.

The folk literature in Pakistan and other South Asian countries tells the stories of romantic love of very famous couples such as Heer Ranjha, Sassi Punuu, Sohini Mahiwal, Sahiban Mirza, Shirin Farhad, and of course, the most famous, Laila Majnoon. The common thread in all these stories is the intensity of love and women’s rebellions against the restrictions of class, caste, and social status. The stories of these young couples left a mark on folk literature not because of the alpha male’s stand against social stratification, but due to the girl’s boldness and steadfastness in defying the man-made boundaries that hindered the meeting of two persons.

But in the modern context, it is very important to note that the young boy who sees himself in the role of male lovers such as Ranjha, Majnoon, or Farhad and expects his beloved to be as rebellious as Heer, Laila, or Shirin, but cannot tolerate his own sister act in a comparable role. He will forget that his female beloved is the sister or daughter of another coercive ghairatmand (honorable) brother or father, but if his own sister tries to rebel or assert her due rights he is more than likely to take the traditional approach and condemn her possibly to death. These dichotomous social attitudes towards women and dual moral standards for men and women have given rise to social conflicts, ethical tensions, and honor related violence.

The number of honor related murders is higher among agricultural communities where the women of the family enjoy rights of inheritance to landed property granted to them through the Islamic law of inheritance

Honor related murders are reported from all the four provinces. Sindh and Punjab have reported the highest number of such murders. Two factors can be taken into account here. (a) Both provinces have a much higher population ratio (b) Both provinces have received much greater attention in the print media and NGO research studies. Members of the print media are relatively better educated in both provinces and do not face threats to their lives from leaders of the communities where such killings occur. Most honor related murders are reported from the semi-rural and small remote villages among semi-literate or illiterate communities. Most incidents are reported from among the migrated rural communities living in low-income urban area or settled in the outskirts of big cities. The families who have recently migrated from the rural areas to the cities still have strong ties with the agrarian rural culture. Families who migrate from rural to urban setting belong to all classes (upper, middle and lower) in all four provinces of Pakistan. They move to cities with their minds full of traditional and conservative perceptions of family honor and women’s shame. Honor related murder occur across all the classes but the ratio changes when class interacts with other socio-economic, ethnic and familial patterns. For example, no matter how educated they are, men of the rural based upper class with a tribal family set-up and strong kinship ties react towards their women’s rebellion just like the illiterate men in lower class illiterate families living in the remote village. Further, suppression and control of female sexuality is as strict among the semi-literate urban middle class as it is among those living in semi-rural areas or small cities. In Pakistan, this is usually in the villages and districts where the tribal system has a very strong hold and in the cities mostly in congested neighborhoods, where families from the same ethnic/lingual group live in close proximity. More honor related murders are reported from the rural areas where the joint or extend family system is still in vogue. There is a comparatively lower ratio among urban nuclear families where neighbors are not also relatives. The number of honor related murders is higher among agricultural communities where the women of the family enjoy rights of inheritance to landed property granted to them through the Islamic law of inheritance. The number of murders reported from areas where different ethnic/linguistic/religious groups live in close proximity are much higher. It is also higher among socially diverse communities that share natural economic resource and means of subsistence and compete over the limited or scarce resources.

In Pakistan, various economic, political, religious and cultural contradictions can be observed. Local and global market forces have shaped, reshaped, and de-shaped Pakistan’s social and political fabric. In rural areas, women had always been visible in public places while working in the farms and fields. In urban centers women of the poorer classes had always worked outside the home but in the last few decades, due to economic necessities, more women of the middle and upper middle classes enter public spaces for education and employment. Families in general are now accepting their women involvement in camp generating activities due to increasing economic pressures, shrinking resources, a competitive job market, and skyrocketing inflation. However despite extensive changes in the public life of men and women, there have been relatively less changes in perceptions and attitudes of family men towards the rights of women.

It may be said that the contradictory attitude of family towards male and female genders, and dual societal standards in judging male and female conduct are responsible for the persistence of honor related violence. However, the family is not an independent force. Family culture, perceptions, and attitudes towards male and female children are dependent on material forces and economic interests hidden in the larger social system

(to be concluded)

Ghania Usman was formerly associated with Army Public School (APS) Bahawalpur / Saud Bin Ahsen is a freelancer