Editorial

Drive against ‘honour’ killing

We must not vilify these people and help them see that there is a better way to progress as a society

Editorial June 17, 2020

Clerics and religious scholars in the highly conservative Lower Kohistan area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will now work with the local police as part of a special campaign against honour killings. In what appears to be a first, the move is extremely significant for a region which rose to prominence early in the last decade after reports emerged that four girls had been killed for ‘honour’ after a video showing them clapping and dancing as part of wedding celebrations had gone viral. Not only the girls in the video were killed, for appearing on a video they did not consent to record, but the man who blew the whistle on the incident was also killed not too long ago. And then recently, there was a similar incident.

Clerics of the area have now said that such killings are not only illegal per the law of the land, but are also against Islamic injunctions. Stressing the need for creating greater awareness on the topic, the scholars are preaching that no one can be killed based on mere suspicion. Furthermore, they seem to realise that honour killings, like the 2012 case, has attached a massive stigma to the Kohistani society and are eager to shed this image. The ulema are right in stressing that there is a need to create greater awareness about not only the morality of such actions but perhaps also the ripple effects that it can have on their society.

In this scenario, the state needs to reach out to them beyond just the local police who are hoping to improve the crimes noted in the honour killing column at the end of the year. There must be awareness, but there must be empathy as well. The messages crafted must not appear to impose a different ideology on them, rather it must educate them per the values they hold dear. We must not vilify these people and help them see that there is a better way to progress as a society per the laws of man and God.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2020.

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