Not an act of honour

A young woman named Fatima was shot dead on a Karachi road this week and her husband was left in critical condition with six bullet wounds - all because they had married of their own free will. The most frightening part of this story is that it did not make it to mainstream news, did not reach the public, barely even created a stir. For those who are unfamiliar with such tales, this sounds like a fresh horror. But Sindh has been retelling this same story for decades whilst only changing the names.

Karo-kari is not an aberration in this province; it is almost an anticipated risk whenever two consenting adults choose to take an independent decision about their own lives while going against their family's desires. Police records show that as many as 769 people, including 510 women, were killed in the name of honour in Sindh between 2014 and 2019 - only five years. This means that almost 13 people were killed every single month for five years straight, all in the name of a socially constructed honour that dissipates after just one generation.

What's worse is that the conviction rate for these cases stands at roughly two per cent against an acquittal rate near 21 per cent. These statistics are incriminating evidence of the fact that this practice hasn't been punished enough to fade away. The lack of penalties quite clearly equates to an endorsement. When murderers are able to walk away freely, the legal system has unjustly rid itself of its responsibilities.

Real change needs three things that Sindh has refused to enforce: fast-tracked trials with fixed timelines so that cases cannot be stretched into irrelevance; the prosecution of jirga members who mostly order these killings; and a sustained public campaign in the media, mosques and communities that names karo-kari as murder, not an act of honour.