Honour or shame?

It is with great sorrow and profound outrage that we find ourselves once again reporting on yet another senseless act of ‘honour’ killing in the Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In the most recent tragedy, a woman and a man were ruthlessly shot dead, allegedly at the hands of the former’s father and brother.

In the eyes of the law, these abhorrent killings constitute intentional murder. The tragedy is not an isolated incident. Just in November, another girl met a similar fate at the hands of her own father, this time under the orders of a jirga, after social media pictures showed her and a friend in the company of two unrelated boys — a perceived taboo in the area. This tragic history repeats itself again and again, with young lives snuffed out in the name of honour. In October, another young woman faced a jirga-issued honour killing decree for the ‘crime’ of being in contact with a stranger over a mobile phone. Her brave escape and plea for protection from the police averted another potential tragedy. Yet, as we grieve for the victims of these cowardly acts, we also find hope in the stories of survival and resistance. It is time for society to recognise these crimes for what they truly are: barbaric acts that have no place in the 21^st century. We must demand justice, not just for those who have lost their lives, but for those who continue to live in fear of a system that values honour over humanity. Kohistan, like many conservative and remote areas, has seen its fair share of honour killings. But this cannot be an excuse for complacency. These senseless deaths must be met with condemnation and action at all levels of society.

It is an undeniable truth that honour killings are a blight on our society and have no place in any civilised legal system. The law must be unequivocal in condemning such crimes and must ensure that severe punishments are meted out to the perpetrators.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2024.

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