Death and tolerance

KARACHI: This is with reference to your report “Father, son plead guilty in ‘honour killing’ of daughter” (July 17). How on earth can you plant your family in a society with completely alien values and standards, and then expect your children not to be confused and resist the misplaced ‘traditional’ values you want to ram down their throats? How can people be so idiotic and so tragically myopic? I hope they live to regret their actions every single day, and realise how wrong they were to think they had the right to dictate whether she should live or die based on their own ignorant perceptions. Imagine that a father would murder his own daughter like that, over what is essentially a difference of opinion on how she wants to live her life.

What about behaving like a real parent, with tolerance, acceptance and understanding? What about talking to your children, or getting to know them for who they are instead of expecting some impossible form of complete submission? Maybe if he had been a real father he would have been able to explain to his daughter why he would like her to live by certain values as opposed to others. He could have helped her find herself, not snuff out a life he helped create.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2010.