Nearly 1,000 Pakistan women 'killed for honour'
The statistics highlight the growing scale of violence suffered by many women in Pakistan.
Despite progress on better protecting women's rights, activists say the government needs to do more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.
"At least 943 women were killed in the name of honour, of which 93 were minors," wrote the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report.
Seven Christian and two Hindu women were among the victims, it said.
The Commission reported 791 "honour killings" in 2010.
Around 595 of the women killed in 2011 were accused of having "illicit relations" and 219 of marrying without permission.
Some victims were raped or gang raped before being killed, the Commission said. Most of the women were killed by their brothers and husbands.
Only 20 of 943 killed were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died, the Commission wrote.
Despite the rising number of reported killings, activists have praised parliament for passing laws aimed at strengthening women's protection against abuses.
Rights groups say the government should do more to ensure that women subjected to violence, harassment and discrimination have effective access to justice.
Last year, a Belgian court sentenced four members of a Pakistani family to prison for the murder of their daughter, who defied them by living with a Belgian man and refused an arranged marriage.
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I read in comments here and other places of this newspaper where many bleat that US should be punished for drone attacks while no one mentions about punishing these Pakistani citizens who kill women on the grounds of bringing dishonour to the family. These same Pakistani citizens also point out that in India also women are killed as if this is an excuse for not punishing these murderers. Remember that lady whose husband threw acid in her face who later was acqitted and the lady committed suicide in Rome? The man roams freely in the streets of Pakistan. What a justice system?
@fahad: What does your url prove? That there are bad people i India too? I don't think anyone is arguing that there are no bad people in India. The difference is the attitude of society when bad things come to light. Did the neighbours support the girl or the father when they found out?
@fahad: "thousands of women are raped and killed in dehli …read TIMES OF INDIA…GUJRAT RIOTS REMEMBER !!!!"
Gujarat riots occurred 10 years back. Are you going to justify harm to your OWN women based on what happened in India 10 years back during riots (which are not a normal time)?
As far as New Delhi. there is national outrage in India about the close to 500 (not thousands) of women raped in Delhi annually. Indians do not use ill treatment of women in Pakistan to justify mistreating women in India. And I regularly read Times Of India. I have not heard of thousands of honour killing in India - let alone New Delhi. Our home minister has come out in the open and described it as " dishonour killings" and parents are usually arrested when this happen. They do not go unpunished.
Finally in India even for rape there is a conviction rate of 33% compared to less than 1% for India.
@pakistan politics: "why ET showing such bad news about pakistan? s"
Given that ET is a Pakistani newspaper, is this not what you would expect?
We are a sick nation. We won't accept our mistakes and highlight mistakes of others to somehow think our crimes are not that bad. Those who think that this is just a few who do it, you are wrong. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
@Asad: They come here to vent out their frustration, desperation and show us how confused insecure and obsessed they are with us spending 23 of 24 hours of day here on ET making sure not miss the first spot of each and every news.
@fahad: "thousands of women are raped and killed in dehli …read TIMES OF INDIA…GUJRAT RIOTS REMEMBER !!!! " Gujarat riots happened 10 years back. There have been no interfaith riots since then in India. Total 795 Muslims and around 300 Hiindus were killed in that riot. They did not have a single instance of honor killing and have nothing to do with this article. Also Gujrat riots were triggered by Muslims burning 58 Hindu pilgrims in their train bogey.
Also rape is different from honor killing. Please do not compare a stranger 's act of violence to a violent act by someone who is supposed to love and protect these women.
@Oops!: "More than 10,000 women are raped in US every year – it never makes frontpage HEADLINE on its papers there!"
How do you know more women are not raped in Pakistan? Do you think that in a country where honour killings are common a girl will report rape? Especially when she knows that the rapists will never get convicted given how the court system functions. I am sure they are familiar with the Mukhtara Mai case where the whole village saw her being gang raped and the rapists are still scot free.
The fact that women are able to report rape in US means that they expect to receive justice from society and the legal system.
@Asad: They're not Indian trolls! They're neutrally objective observers from Amreeka who are here for purely non-controversial and purely scientific reasons, and they show genuine concerns about the plight of women in Pakistan. And why should Indians worry, anyway ? You're talking as if there were cases of female infanticide and hundreds of thousands of little girls were killed before learning to say 'abu' - 'abu' who generally offer them their last trip.
@fahad:
read how many of the culprits are arrested and sentenced to death or rigourous imprisonment....
THATS my main point...did i ever say there are NO such incidents in india??...
Unfortunate news. However why do we get indian trolls flooding each and everything related to pakistan? Height of obsession.
@Freeman: Not to split hair but I think you'll find the number for rape in the US is one every two minutes. You're missing the point of honor killing though. Rape is one thing but here we're talking about murder, often committed by family members, to avenge a perceived sexual offense by a family member, be it as innocent as marrying the person of your own choice.
There's no equivalent of this in a non-Islamic society. In your country victims are often encouraged to marry their rapists. What a horrible world for women to live in.
@Freeman: In USA every 5 second one girl is raped which is one of the fastest rate in the world but no paper ever make those headlines If this is happening in a christian country, a Muslim country like Pakistan should not lag behind it. Go ahead and rape all the women, if not sufficient, all the animals also.
And could there be anything more dishonorable? It's an indictment of our culture and religion.
Stop calling it HONOUR killing to begin with and just say it like it is... MURDER!!! It needs to be highlighted always and the perpetrators must be punished. There's no two ways about it!!
@Yash: you should watch this too
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Girl-19-raped-by-dad-for-5-years-pregnant/articleshow/12347506.cms
I don't understand the Pakistan mentality, if anything happens to any Muslim they will be the first to condemn it yet they don't care about their women who live in their own country, pathetic. Hypocrites.
Also as an Indian I condemn violence against women (irrespective of religion or country)
@IM the DIM: Shabash on your geniusness. Calling a nation of 180 million pathetic on action few retards? Grow up.
And the honor goes to once again????
unfortunate to see those beautiful pak females get killed.
Well I see most write statistics of US or India ....but giving statistics of other countries you have no right to do wrong. First correct yourself...killing your females is loss to your country
@IM the DIM: And yet we highlight these issues and condemn it. Dont let the acts of few taint the repute of the whole nation. @Dg Excellent comments. @ET I seriously doubt these stats. I hope we get a more detailed report.
@Muhammadd: This is not they turn their faces from it but they feel that media is only targeting them. And in front of so many indians when they come on our websites we have to show them their home as they are pointing fingers at us.
It is ironic that everytime this islamic republic's crimes are highlighted, its people turn their face away and shout at others of doing the same, as if saying that it is ok for this crime to happen since others are doing it also.
In USA every 5 second one girl is raped which is one of the fastest rate in the world but no paper ever make those headlines. I am not saying this Aemrican Women organisations says. Why only Pakistan is target for human rights. Are they fear of America who finance human rights dig these type of news every other day from Pakiatan and other poor countries. Same news every other day.
They are delibrately trying to destroy Pakistans reputations with the repeated propaganda by hiding behind the word news. This paper takes feed from these type of organisations everydays only about Pkaistan. It seems only in Paksitan everything is happening wrong. Other countries people are angles.
We know these bad things in some of Pakistans and even Indian areas are also going on for the centuries. They have not started now but happening centuries. They should be stopped. This Pakistani Government has failed to takle even small things. How they are going to tackle big problems like this.
This should be stopped in Pakistan and both men and women (Father-Daughter)(Brother-Sister) have to trust each other to stop all this.
http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?q=taxonomy/term/767 this is just an glimpse of what happens in other countries. But our media is much more interested in highlighting Pakistan. Which is ok to an extent as we need to resolve such issues.
@Yash: thousands of women are raped and killed in dehli ...read TIMES OF INDIA...GUJRAT RIOTS REMEMBER !!!!
Thats sad!!! Liberalism will lead to all this. Men should start treating women with due respect and women should not misuse their power of being women. If a father or brother will not tolerate their daughter or sister sleeping with any other men illegally then yes they might go to this level of killing them(they should not). Men should realize that its all over its not Islamic Republic anymore. Women should realize that this is not india or america and they can do watever they want. Religion has a big role in Pakistan. This liberalism from indian/american movies has corrupted us morally. And we expect sanity from our older uneducated generations.
tali 2 hath sey bajti hae....
why ET showing such bad news about pakistan? show Indian killing, and we all know that in India its more than 1 million last year and increasing rapidly.
@Oops!:
Of course there are rapes and murders in USA, just like ALL countries of the world. The problem with us is that instead of providing justice we actually PUNISH rape victims, and also PUNISH people for the harmless act of choosing whom to love and marry. And these punishments take the ultimate form of death penalty, with full sanction of society.
Please stop comparing two different things entirely, and be part of the solution rather than the problem.
@MarkH: Heard that in some country which is currently selling democracy in our neighbourhood thousands of women are used as punching-ball every year. Do I have the right to generalize ? Or will we use a bit of our God-given-brain-cells and see it as a problem not limited to Pakistan ? @Senman: Indians don't really have a chance to 'honour killing women' when they actually kill them before their first breathe.
@Rameez and others.
Whether it is Pakistan or India or US "wrong is wrong". Let us accept that. When reports are there about India, we condemn that and create public opinion. How much we succeed to change is secondary.
The most important part is to appreciate that something is wrong and it needs to be corrected. The Pakistan is for Pakistan people. You only have to correct it. If some other country is going to dogs, does not mean you should also allow your country to go in same direction.
Have courage to say "This is wrong". Unfortunately the outsiders are seeing most of you as not being modern, not being inclusive, not being equanimous.
We all have faults, we sre trying and not covering. Request you also to try and not to cover or find excuses to continue the same in the name that others also have these.
As fellow human and inhabitor or same earth, I request you to be more answerable to God. Think what He would have done.
May God bless you with more courage and wisdom.
How many of the perpetrators were arrested? How many of the perpetrators were convicted? The answer to those two questions will tell you why honor killings are popular in Pakistan. Shame on you.
@Rameez:
actually we get the news as...parents ARRESTED for honour killing....and for ur info...the number is way less
and how many are killed in India every year? i am sure the number will be 10 times greater.
More than 10,000 women are raped in US every year - it never makes frontpage HEADLINE on its papers there!
Shocking. Three every day!
Most other places it would be more dishonorable to harm the woman.
This is a sickness but not limited to Pakistan, that said Pakistan needs to support their Women as they are losing their brain power. This is one of the reason Pakistan will find difficult to compete with India as most of the women in Pakistan is over-protected to the point of unable to breathe.
Amazing to see the Pakistani hypocracy. When a women of theirs are in doubt, they kill them. They need perfect honour. Their women needs to be pure as lily. But when it comes to Hindu women, everybody has liberty to Kidnap, rape, convert, marry, murder etc. they are the people who deserve least honour.
what a pathetic nation.