Speedy justice

An anti-terrorism court on November 19 sentenced four men to death in Lahore for the murder of a woman, who was three months’ pregnant. She had been murdered by members of her own family for marrying the man of her choice. The manner of her death — she was hit with stones, bricks and clubs close to the courthouse where she was pleading her case — caused international outrage, as well as outrage in some parts of our own society. Whilst the rights and wrongs of handing out a death sentence can be debated upon, we wholeheartedly support the speed with which this case was brought to court and the finding of a guilty verdict, irrespective of the sentence handed down. All too often, ‘honour killing’ cases disappear into the far distance, dropping off the agenda as cultural norms erode the rule of law, and findings of guilt are rare indeed.

It is not possible to objectively measure the number of women killed in honour killings every year, as many cases never reach the ears of the police, never mind the courts. A conservative estimate puts the number at more than 1,000, but it could be double that. Honour killing has nothing to do with faith; it is fuelled by a deep-rooted misogyny and a desire to deny women independence of thought and deed. Women are seen by many as items of portable property in Pakistan, and the specious ascription to women as repositories of the family ‘honour’ is no more than a mechanism to bind and constrain them. Challenging a mindset as pervasive as that is difficult, and that is why, this finding of guilt is of particular importance. The message that the anti-terrorism court has given is that murder is murder, no matter what ‘cultural’ trappings may be hung about it. The victim was killed in plain view, the attackers were immediately recognisable and — for once — the police followed through (though they were guilty bystanders to the act itself). Farzana Parveen may not have died in vain, and it is to be hoped that this presages more guilty verdicts.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2014.

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