675 'honour killing' victims in Pakistan: HRCP

At least 675 Pakistani women and girls were murdered during the first nine months of the year.


Afp December 20, 2011

ISLAMABAD: At least 675 Pakistani women and girls were murdered during the first nine months of the year for allegedly defaming their family's honour, a leading human rights group said Tuesday.

Despite some progress on better protecting women's rights, activists say the government needs to do far more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.

"A total of 675 women and girls were killed in the name of honour across Pakistan from January to September," a senior official in the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan told AFP.

They included at least 71 victims under the age of 18.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is unauthorised to speak to the media, said figures were still being compiled from October to December, and that a full report would be released in February.

The Commission reported 791 honour killings in 2010 and there was no discernible decrease this year, the official added.

Around 450 of the women killed from January to September were accused of having "illicit relations" and 129 of marrying without permission.

Some victims were raped or gangraped before being killed, he said. At least 19 were killed by their sons, 49 by their fathers and 169 by their husbands.

Rights groups say the government should do more to ensure that women subject to violence, harassment and discrimination have effective access to justice.

Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch, told AFP that the state's inability to enforce rule of law, leaving matters in the hands of tribesmen and local elders, was a major factor.

"We have a system in Pakistan where the state and judicial recourse are absent and the vacuum is filled by local elders," he said.

"A combination of legal reforms, exercise of administrative authority and social awareness can greatly help check the honour killings," he added.

COMMENTS (8)

Mehdi Hassan Zafari | 12 years ago | Reply

Women are the creators of a society, there is a 90 to 95 percent chance that an educated woman will educate their children and that is how a society becomes educated. Plus Islam allows women to choose their companion for marriage. Shameful and sad, one of the first commands that the Prophet (PBUH) got from God was to treat your women fairly and stop infanticide. How can we call our selves Muslims??

Ahsan Butt | 12 years ago | Reply

All the human beings are equal regardless of their sex. They have equall rights to live their lives. In our society, particularly, women are the victim of Honour Killings. Let me ask a couple of Questions. Are they born just to limit theirselves? Don't they have the feelings like those of men? Why our society is silent regarding the innate rights of the women? Why people prefer worldy things to women? Are we supposed to hate them, subordinate them and even kill them? I Would like to appeal to our society that try to understand each other otherwise we'll loss our Identity. Give the women their Innate Rights.

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