Daily Times

On Saturday 16^th July, a fateful day for some, a Pakistani model and social media sensation Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother in the name of ‘honour’. No sooner had the news come out than a statement was issued by Multan police saying that the murder was a case of ‘honor killing’. Although the accused, who had fled to Dera Ghazi Khan after allegedly committing the murder, was caught, arrested, and presented in a press conference all in the same day, confessed to killing his sister to save the ‘family honour’ – the initial statement by police not only seemed irresponsible as it was issued prior to acquiring any concrete evidence through thorough probe, but it also set in motion a chain reaction among the internet community.

The news of Baloch’s murder in the name of honor was immediately followed by varying reactions from different factions of our society, and the internet was swamped by opinions pouring in from all over the country. There was a clear divide in the perspectives of those who bothered to have an opinion on the matter. Unsurprisingly, a sweeping majority of the internet crusaders rendered their support to the alleged culprit; considering numerous recent events of honor killings across the country, and their rising number, it would be unfair to say that it was shocking. It was, however, unsettling, perplexing, and downright sad to see these commentators –men and women alike- not only offering an “understanding” of the culprit’s stance, but also justifying the heinous crime. Some even went so far as to say that the victim had indeed brought it upon herself to be killed in cold blood by her own brother.

Now, although proper investigations are yet to be made (should the police deem it necessary), based on the frenzy this incident has brought we can infer a few things about our social fiber: it is patriarchal to its deepest core; this predominating patriarchal approach colors our judgments, morality, decisions, and is often hard to separate from religious teachings and human values. It is this overshadowing of discretion that drives our people to side with a murderer when the murder is committed to uphold patriarchal values. It is common observation that in cases of mass terrorism activities, whether in Pakistan or abroad, where perpetrators come out to identify as Muslims, we rush to citing religious references such as “killing a single human being is akin to murder of the whole humanity”. Yet when incidents like honor killings are in question our collective conscience is conveniently put to sleep and religious teachings either take the back seat or are interpreted so as to justify the criminal’s stance. Sadly, it explains the distressing fact that while instances of honor killings only seem to be increasing with time, there is very little being done to curb these events.

Since Zia era Pakistan has been nose diving into the pits of moral decadence; with a painful rise in religious extremism, intolerance, and decreasing value of human lives, we may be at the lowest of our low at this point (or at least hopefully we are and there’s no going further). According to the Federal Ministry of Law, there were 933 cases of honor killings reported in 2015 alone. The tyranny is that since killers in such cases are mostly related to the victims, and as per Pakistani law family members of any victim have a right to pardon the killer, the murderers are rarely ever punished for their crime, which in effect facilitates the aforementioned increase in such cases.

The debate that Qandeel’s murder has kicked off within various spheres of the society has a positive side to it as well: people are finally starting to question the previously unchallenged patriarchal values, and are speaking out loud and clear against the flawed definitions of honor that perpetrate killings of women and sometimes men. There is finally a section of society that does not see honor in killing and does not believe in making heroes out of killers. While there are people like Haroon Rasheed, the journalist/analyst, blaming Qandeel Baloch for enflaming her brother’s “honor”, there are saner voices rising as well. In a surprising turn of events, state has decided to become complainant in Qandeel’s murder case so as to prevent her relatives from pardoning the culprit, and has even included Mufti Qavi in the investigations; it is indicative of the power that people hold but seldom realize they have.

We may or may not agree with the choices Qandeel made but her murder, as unfortunate as it is, has given us a chance to stand up against these obsolete ideologies that use beguiling narratives to oppress a certain faction of the society based on their gender. Narratives that put a rhetorical halo above the killer’s’ head and malign the victim, often by juxtaposing questionable religious interpretations to support the said rhetoric.