Unsafe at home
If one goes about unveiling the boundary walls of dwellings in Pakistan, big or small, high-income or low-income, or give it any other category, each of them will show that a Noor Muqaddam, a Kohistan girl and a Quratul-ain Baloch exist in every family, in every shape. Boys, men, transgenders, or children, the savagery spares no one.
Domestic killings are taking a heavy toll on family security in Pakistan. It is the height of brutality that a family member with blood or otherwise distant kinship can lose sanity to this extent. Although cases of domestic killings in Pakistan mostly highlight women’s killings, cases reported by local NGOs in Punjab and Sindh show that men and children are equally vulnerable to the heinous acts of inhumaneness. Mostly cases reporting men’s killings find root in matters on property conflicts, trivial family affairs and honour killings, while those of children mainly stem from scenarios where the head of the family kills the entire family owing to their incapability to cope with finances; however, other less common issues also form a range of reasons and circumstances leading to family killings.
So, what and where is our safe haven? Domestic violence has already plagued our social system enough to convince us that kinship can no longer be trusted, and that every individual is responsible for their personal safety and security without reliance on family. Domestic killings, in addition, are further showing that the social institution of Pakistan is completely disintegrating. No amount of faith in the state, religion or human resources can ever offer security and safeguarding of human rights in a society if human beings themselves have ripped off the last shred of humanness and what counts as mental and emotional decorum — no amount of legal or social protection either can.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 16th, 2024.
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