Of jirgas and ‘honour’

The murder of three women on jirga orders will make headlines for less than 24 hrs, but the story has a familiar ring.

The murder of three women on the orders of a jirga will make headlines for less than 24 hours, but the story has a familiar ring.

A man suspected his wife and her relatives of wrongdoing, convened a jirga and had them executed in an ‘honour killing’ in Swat, without concrete evidence and despite the district administration’s efforts to protect them.

Thankfully the administration later arrested the husband and his fellow murderers, as well as the members of the jirga and seized their property. The administration also had the salaries of some government employees stopped on suspicion of their complicity in the matter. A scenario that is so common that it is often unremarked outside the circles of civil rights activists. The fact that the circle of all those involved in the killings was so wide also points to the extent to which this notion of restoring ‘honour’ in this manner is widely accepted.

The number of people killed for ‘honour’ in Pakistan is unclear as there are no officially collected figures and all statistics are derived from open-source material, primarily the print media. In 2011 human rights groups collectively reported between 720 and 790 incidents, generally considered to be an under-reporting of incidence. ‘Honour’ killings are generally not recognised as being criminal, are ignored by the police as ‘family matters’ and the perpetrator is perceived as upholding his or her perception of ‘justice’ as the victim has, or is alleged to have, committed a crime against the prevailing social norms. As such ‘honour’ killings invert the role of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. The person who kills the victim is seen as upholding traditional values and norms, whereas the victim becomes the criminal meriting punishment. Reversing or challenging such a mindset is a challenge few are willing to take up. The reversal of the polarity of the moral compass, right becoming wrong, black becoming white, is a national malaise for which there is no early remedy.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.

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