Barbaric acts

Only way such acts will stop is if we can persuade people to think differently; accept woman's right to choice.

Doings of quite stunning barbarity take place in our country, even today. It is hard to believe what kind of acts of medieval madness people are capable of, and how low the price on human life is. The latest such incident took place in Hakim Khan Murree village in Sinjhoro taluka, Sanghar district, where a 17-year-old girl was allegedly buried alive in the Bheel graveyard, after marrying outside her clan. Her decision to marry created uproar within her clan, and her father lodged a complaint, stating her uncles had taken her away — and killed her.

The police are for now saying that the girl was murdered before she was placed in her grave. A planned exhumation will possibly bring the whole story forward. But whatever happened, it is clear that she met a terrible end. The last hours of life for the teenager must have been terrible ones, as she was taken away and then killed by her relatives. The girl, of course, had committed no crime; done nothing wrong. The fault lies in the mindset of our society, the way it acts and the heinous deeds that stem from this. It seems likely that, given Sindh’s ugly tradition of karo kari, the man she married, too, faces a threat.

This act of gruesome killing has come to light. It is perfectly possible other such acts carried out in remote villages and hamlets do not. The girl must, of course, get justice. It is a tragedy she died so young, most of her life unlived. But the only way such acts of inhumanity will stop is if we can persuade people to think differently; to accept that women have a right to choice and to move beyond notions of clan and caste and creed. Achieving this is a difficult task. The contours of the social patterns that remain entrenched are hard to alter. But somehow or the other, this has to be achieved, so an end can be put to terrible deeds such as the killing of the poor teenager. She will not be the last victim of such folly until thinking changes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2014.

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