Two teenage girls and their mother were reported to have been shot dead in the city of Chalas located in the Gilgit-Baltestan province of Pakistan. (Honor-Killing)

Date of incident: Sunday, June 23rd, 2013

According to the police this was an act of honor killing after a video showing the two teenage girls running, laughing and dancing in the rain spread throughout the area. It is suspected that this act of murdering the three females was plotted by a step brother of the two girls, namely Khutore who is absconding and his whereabouts are still not clear. A theory suggests that Khutore after finding the video of his step sisters had the view that they had brought disgrace to the family that lead him to this inhuman action.

Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper has reported that the father of the victims has filed a report that states that  five masked men broke into their house and shot the girls and their mother dead.

Police have been successful in arresting four of the people who broke into the house who have also confessed. While Khutore is still on the run.

According to a Human Rights Commission report, honor killings are quite common in Pakistan. And in the year 2011 alone, around 943 women were killed in the name of honor.

Although honor killing is majorly practiced in Muslim countries like Turkey, Iran and Pakistan this has nothing to do with Islam. The Holy Quran (Islamic Divine Scripture) and the other sources of knowledge in Islam openly condemn any kind of act regarding violence against women. According to many scholars in the region this act is a part of the ancient tribal customs which state that the integrity of their tribe, village or family solely dependent on the actions of their women.

It is important to add that last year four women were killed in the village of Kohistan in the same region after they were sentenced death by a local group of clerics, called a Jirga. The jirga was of the view that they had stained the names of their families by dancing with men at a wedding party. At that occasion Aurat Foundation (a women's rights group in Pakistan) stated that about a thousand such so called honor-killings take place but it is always the woman and not the man who is punished.  Human Rights Watch, which campaigns against atrocities worldwide, had called for tougher measures against tribal elders who condemn women to death.

Literate Pakistanis have demonstrated protests against these unlawful actions but the government fails to take important measures to prevent such events from occurring. Various national and international organisations such as the UN Women are working to stop "honor killing" in the society but the lack of national data and the poor law and order situation are acting as barriers in the course of their cause.

By: Mohammad Hotiana (Pakistan)

To Kill, to protect Honour?

Jamila was to be married off to a cousin, but she couldn’t stand the idea, not one bit. The proclivity for her family to force on her an incestuous bond in matrimony was far too much for her to accept, far too wrong for her to tolerate. Jamila was educated, even if not as much as her brother was- she still understood the wrong in allowing the marriage to take place. Jamila’s heart was with another, anyway, and marrying him was the only prospect she was willing to consider. So she devised a plan- she would run away on the eve of the wedding. A trusted friend would be her aide, and help her escape the pockmarked fate that was awaiting her. But even the truest of friends can be forced to turn foe, circumstances forcing her to be a tattle-tale. That night, Jamila was killed by her brothers.

Why?

Because the family’s honour is of utmost importance; Because a runaway bride is a prospect about a thousand times worse in comparison to a dead one; Because they can.

Jamila is a wispy piece of fiction for my article. But her fate is not. In the past year alone, as many as 943 Pakistani women were killed, all in the name of honour. They allegedly shamed their family, and by bringing their family disrepute, death was their decided punishment. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in its report, exposed the sordid reality shrouding the sudden deaths of these many women. 93 of these women were minors. In as many as 595 cases, the reason was the subsistence of alleged illicit relationships, while as many as 219 women had voiced a demand to marry a person of their own choice. The report reveals the dark horrors of unabashed antagonism to women- as many as 180 cases had their own brothers as the killers, 226 cases where husbands as the killers, and 19 of them were raped, while 12 were gang-raped.

But what is the honour in killing?

How could these men justify the killing of their women, all in the name of “honour”? I remember these lines I read in Shakespeare’s magnum opus, Julius Caesar, where Brutus says to Cassius,

Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,

And I will look on both indifferently,

For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

As contextually logical as these lines appear vis-a-vis Brutus’ exchange with Cassius on the subject of Brutus’ affection for a sense of honour, rather than to live a life with stigma, the insinuation of such logic in the hope of quelling any plausible dishonour stemming from a woman’s choice of standing for herself, or from a woman’s pursuit of a relationship with a man of her choice, is absurd. Outrageously so, at that.

Honour killings are a reflection of a society that is steeped in an uber-conservative mindset, and deeply entwined an ego-centric misunderstanding, wherein women are construed emblematic of their familial honour, through their behaviour and conduct in the public eye. Any ‘misconduct’ therefore, is a depredation of the family’s honour and pride, and needs to be prevented at any cost. The dishonour can be dispensed with, and honour can be restored only if the offending female is tossed off the cliff.

But this mindset is not confined to Pakistan. Palestine, Afghanistan, and even the west- wherein Canada’s records show the occurrence of the ‘honour’ killings of a couple of girls, to name a few, are hotbeds where the practice seems to thrive.

There is no doubt that a mentality that precedes the perpetration of such an act is a product of misguided and ill-gotten values. Reality is theirs to interpret - it appears, for they seem to liberally take the law into their own hands. The confluence of a politically liberal environment coupled with misinterpretation of religious texts as sanctioning the act by a couple of zealots is an unholy, heady mix. You cannot hope to be politically or religiously liberated if you fail to understand that social liberation goes alongside the both.

Honour lies in respect, in perseverance, in honesty and in humanitarian conduct. And when you kill, there’s no more dishonour than that.


By Kirthi Gita Jayakumar

Justice for Jassi?

On June 8, 2000, 24-year-old Jaswinder (Jassi) Sidhu was riding through the streets of Punjab, India with her husband, Mithu. They were relative newlyweds having been married only a year before. Jassi and Mithu met in 1995 when Jassi visited India with her family. They secretly married in March 1999 when her family returned to India, knowing that her family would not approve of the match because she came from a wealthy family and he was a poor rickshaw driver.

Jassi and Mithu

That fateful night in June 2000, they were ambushed by a group of men wielding swords and sharpened field hockey sticks. Mithu was seriously injured in the attack and left for dead. He was found on the day of the attack and taken to hospital. Jassi’s body was discovered floating in a water-filled irrigation ditch the next day; her throat had been slashed.

Police in India revealed that Jassi’s murder was a contract killing arranged and ordered by her mother and uncle (her mother’s brother) as a so-called “honour killing”. Soon after, eleven men were arrested for Jassi’s murder in India and warrants were issued by Indian police for Jassi’s mother and uncle who were living in Canada. However, Indian police did not have jurisdiction in Canada and Canadian authorities refused to extradite Jassi’s mother and uncle to India so that they could be arrested and tried for her murder.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) originally stated that, though Jassi was a Canadian citizen, they had no jurisdiction over her case since the murder occurred in India. However, once allegations surfaced that the murder was conspired in Canada, things changed. Canadian law states that a murder that is plotted on Canadian soil and perpetrated elsewhere lies in Canadian jurisdiction. Even so, Jassi’s mother and uncle had not been extradited to India or arrested in Canada for Jassi’s murder.

Shock waves emanated from Jassi’s murder in India all the way to her home country half a world away; it rocked the nation to its core. Jassi was a Canadian citizen, born and raised, who had done nothing wrong in the eyes of the people who knew her or the country that bore her. There was utter shock and absolute disbelief that the roots of such a crime, so-called “honour killings”, could have been perpetrated against a Canadian citizen, planned on Canadian soil, and arranged by those who should have protected her.

Eleven Years Later...

By 2005, seven of the men arrested for Jassi’s murder and the attempted murder of Mithu had been convicted for several crimes including murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. Though it has been alleged that Jassi’s uncle was in contact with the man who arranged Jassi’s killing in India, it has been established that Jassi’s mother was the one who gave the order to kill her daughter on the day that Jassi was murdered.

The Indian authorities have been working with the RCMP to build a case for the extradition of Jassi’s mother and uncle since 2004. On January 5, 2012, the Supreme Court of British Columbia finally issued arrest warrants under the Extradition Act for Jassi’s mother and uncle; they were arrested the next day. They made their first court appearance a few days later and were last reported as remaining in custody until their next hearing.

Sadly, Jassi’s case is not as unique as we would hope.  “Honour killings” are far too common, even here in Canada. There have been a number of “honour killings” reported in Canada over the past several years. They include:

Aqsa Parvez

            

Aqsa Parvez, 16 – Aqsa was strangled to death in December, 2007 for not wanting to wear a hijab. Her father and brother were sentenced to life in prison in June, 2010. They are not eligible for parole until 2028.




       

Khatera Sadiqi and, her fiance, Feroz Mangal

Khatera Sadiqi, 20 – Both Khatera and her fiance were shot in her car in September, 2006 because she got engaged without her father’s permission. Her brother was sentenced to life in prison in May, 2009.

Amandeep Atwal, 17 – Amandeep was stabbed 11 times in July, 2003 for moving to live with her boyfriend. Her father was sentenced to life in prison in March, 2005.







Aysar Abbas was stabbed 23 times in the neck and once in the heart in October, 1999 by her husband who believed she was having an affair with her business associate. Her husband was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 25 years. He tried to appeal the court’s decision by arguing that he was justified in killing his wife based on Muslim beliefs and “family honour” but the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his appeal and the original sentence was upheld in November, 2006. 

Sahar Shafia and Rona Amir Mohammed

And, as I sit here writing this article, I am watching a news update of a case in Ontario where a couple and their son have been tried for the murder of the couple’s three daughters (Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13) and the husband’s first wife (Rona Amir Mohammad).  Their bodies were found on June 30, 2009 submerged in a canal, inside the family’s car. It is alleged that the Shafia sisters were killed for defying the family’s rules when it came to clothes, dating, and socializing. Rona was infertile and allegedly wanted a divorce. She told immigration authorities that she was a cousin who was helping to raise the family’s children. If her true relationship to the family had been revealed, they could have faced deportation.

The verdict is guilty for all three accused. They have each been convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Only time will tell if Jassi Sidhu will receive the same justice that the other women mentioned have found for the crimes against them. Even so, justice is of little comfort to those who have loved all of these women and insufficient consolation for incomplete lives lost.


By Sandra Dyal

A Prisoner of her Own Country

A month ago, my parents decided to renovate our house. After two days of picking out tiles and deciding on appropriate paint shades and combinations, the house was ready for a makeover. When the masons spread out, knocking out old floors and denting ceramic fittings, my family and I were marooned in the confines of one room. We had the stove shifted into this one room which had an adjoining bathroom. Within the confines of this space, for about ten days, we cooked, we ate, we worked and we slept. We had our laptops and phones, sometimes fighting vociferously for the luxury of one plug point, sometimes surreptitiously switching off another's connection and replacing it with your own. We joked about, surmising with irrelevant conjecture presupposed with no experience, that we were living like refugees.

A couple of time zones behind mine, living in a makeshift house, Safira listens to stories that her mother tells her, from another day, another time, another era, about an ancestral house she will never know, never see nor possibly ever get back as her own. A house whose whispered past she will only hear of, a house that was once rightfully her family’s, but has been rudely snatched from them without any justification. Even as her mother takes her down the lane of nostalgia and a lost hope, even as Safira realises how long gone the ambition of her own land is, more houses in her country are being destroyed. Being a refugee, a prisoner in her own country, is in her blood. Being in a world where her country bears the wrath of a political decision by a colonial empire, even as generations to come seem to be born with the indelible mark of a refugee driven out of their own land is a reality so intricately woven in the fabric of her life. And that is the stark reality in the lives of people like Safira. The people in Palestine.

And that’s just not where the differences between Safira’s life and mine stops. 

Safira is obligated to do the right thing all the time. She cannot afford to slip up, she cannot afford to do anything that would let her family suffer shame. She cannot do anything that might bring her family disgrace or anything that might make her family lose their honour. And if she so much as does, even if by mistake, even if such conduct is nothing shameful whatsoever- she can be killed by her own family. That sword doesn’t hang on my head, or on most of my counterparts in this part of the world. 

The Israel-Palestine conflict is perhaps one of the biggest ongoing inter-state conflicts in the World. The conflict itself has two basic issues. One- the status of the refugees who are now within Israel’s fold is a bone of contention. Two- Israel is in continued occupation of privately owned land in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. In keeping with the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, these territories were supposed to finally culminate in a Palestinian state. However, after several years of Israel’s continuing confiscation of the land and steadily worsening conditions, the Palestinian population rebelled in an uprising, called the "Intifada", meaning “shaking off” in Arabic, at the end of September 2000. There have been plenty of bombings and blockades from Israel's end, targeting Palestine. 

A woman’s every move is monitored with intricate detail by her family. Her virginity is an asset, a responsibility, a sacredly guarded jewel for her family. A woman’s whole life is at the mercy of men: her father, her brothers, her husband and her sons. If a woman’s chastity is in question, she is walking a tightrope, she lives a life on tenterhooks of an oncoming fate that no one can save her from. Her family feels the shame if their girl’s virginity is lost. It does not matter that she could have been raped, it does not matter if the very allegation is just that= baseless and unsubstantiated. Her shame is a plague, a plague that would spread untrammelled to be a pockmark on the lives of all the girls in her family. Arranged marriages cannot happen. So what happens to this woman? She is silenced.

All in the name of honour.

In April, 2010, a woman in her thirties was shot to death in the Northern Gaza Strip, and her father, and a couple of other men were responsible for the crime. In 2009, a girl in a village in Palestine was smothered to death by her own brother. In 2008, two Palestinian girls were killed when the rockets that were intended for Israel failed to reach their actual target. In 2005, a father killed two of his daughters, and grievously injured his third daughter all because they were allegedly involved in sexual affairs. In 2005, a survey revealed that over 60% of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian Authority were psychologically abused by their husbands, 23 percent had been beaten, and 11 percent experienced some form of sexual violence. A 1999 UNICEF report showed that two-thirds of all murders in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza were honour killings.

Shockingly, all this is acceptable under the ambit of Palestine’s Laws. A man who admits to murdering a female relative for reasons of honor can be sentenced to as little as six months in jail, according to a policy in Palestine that still has legitimate force. This in turn is based on an old Jordanian law, which still holds in the West Bank. Article 341 of the Jordanian Penal Code considers murder a legitimate act of defence when the killer acts 'in defence of his life or his honour.'

The most appalling aspect is that Islam is inaccurately cited as a basis, a justification for these crimes. There is an instance where a Palestinian boy admitted to reciting the Qur'an while strangling his sister for bringing in disrepute to her family. The girl was killed because her desire for independence became public knowledge. The Qur’an does not so much as mention any room for honour killings. There are instances in the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel, and Jordan, where women are executed in their own homes. Sometimes, it is not as covert. Women are killed in open fields and even in public, where sometimes the offence is committed before crowds of cheering onlookers.

So why is the recognition of Palestine as a state relevant to Women’s Rights?

At the international level, there is a convention that deems the Discrimination against women, and all other forms of unacceptable activity that target women, as unacceptable- The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Owing to the fact that only states can be subjected to the iron fist of an international legal instrument, and that only a state can be bridled under the rubric of international law, it is necessary that Palestine be offered recognition in the international community as being a state, so that impunity and crimes against women can be given international attention.

However, in 2011, when the UN review of Israel’s compliance with the Convention took place, the opportunity was virtually squandered away, as the victims of abuse and honour killings were barely spoken for. A lot of focus is on the political issue that Israel and Palestine have between them. But for the most part, the world doesn’t seem to realize that no matter how “high” the conflict may be in terms of the levels of debate, it is still the people at the very grass-root that suffer. The very ignorance of Palestine as a state thus far by the United Nations has allowed for the festering of a culture of impunity for women and girls that could have possibly been nipped in the bud should Palestine have been recognized as a state, and should the world have taken notice of the situation that women and girls face. A legal instrument authorizes Honour Killings. It is not a simple matter at all. The deliberate non-recognition has allowed the emanation of a culture of impunity that thrives under the blanket of a deprived status. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, promised to change the discriminatory law, but no action has been taken.

Recognizing Palestine would not just serve the purpose of political goodwill, or international peace and regional order, but would also pave the way for the dispelling of a culture of impunity. Human rights violations are not new to the world, and although it is certainly acceptable that there is no complete reduction or abolition of human rights violations merely because a state is a signatory to a treaty that mandates its abolition, there is every possibility that the sheer number of such instances can be brought down. If the principle of mitigation of harm is anything to go by, it is essential to pull every stop possible to ensure that at least some effort is made to keep the impunity in check.

 By Kirthi Jayakumar

My Brother, My Husband, My Father. My Tormentor, My Captor, My Killer

Every day, girls are born into our world. Sadly, simply because of their gender, these girls will be more likely to face violence and abuse throughout their lives. In many cases, they will also face premature death at the hands of their abusers.

Around the world, women suffer a disproportionate burden of violence for no reason other than having been born female. Contrary to popular belief, violence against women is not a phenomenon that affects girls and women who put themselves at risk by willingly entering dangerous situations. No, the unfortunate reality is that women experience the most violence at home.

Worldwide, women are abused every day, every second. The number one perpetrators of such abuses are not usually strangers they cross paths with on the street. They are not always that man who they met at the bar. Nor are they usually the militiamen who stumble upon women who leave their camps to fetch water from the nearest well. No, in reality, those abusing women tend to be a member of the woman’s own family or someone who they know.

As frightening as it is, women around the world are constantly sleeping under the same roof as the person who abuses them or who might put them at risk.

A report by Amnesty International explains that seventy percent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners. In Kenya, one woman a week becomes part of this grim statistic. In Zambia, five women a week follow the same fate.  In Bangladesh, half of all murders of women are by their partners. Even more alarming, in South Africa, about one woman is killed by her husband or boyfriend every six hours.

Not all skirmishes end up in death. According to the World Health Organization, about fifty percent of women in Tanzania and seventy-one percent of women in Ethiopia’s rural areas reported beatings or other forms of violence by husbands or other intimate partners.

Developed countries have acted to reduce the impact and the incidence of violence against women. Unfortunately, violence against women remains a global problem. In the United States, a woman is battered by her husband or partner every 15 seconds. That boils down to about four battered women in the time it took me to write this paragraph. In New Zealand, twenty percent of women have reported being hit or abused by their male partner. In the United Kingdom, approximately two women are killed every week by their partners.

There is also a story of women who never see the light of life due to female female foeticide. As part of this practice, female fetuses are intentionally killed by their own parents before or right after being born. In India, for example, an estimated 35 to 40 million girls and women are missing from the Indian population as a result of gender-selective abortion. As a consequence of pre-natal sex determination, female fetuses are selectively aborted in order to avoid the birth of girls.

The list describing the forms of violence against women is endless. Women not only are beaten and killed. They are also forced into marriage, they suffer dowry-related violence, marital rape, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, trafficking and forced prostitution.

Why is it that women face such violence and hardships in our world? And why is it that their own family members are the ones perpetrating these acts?

The reason is simple: women are abused because cultural norms around the world put them in subservient positions in relation to their husbands and other males.  The reality is that violence against women is so deeply embedded in cultures around the world that millions of women across the globe consider it a way of life.  In Pakistan, for example, forty-two percent of women accept violence as part of their fate, and thirty-three percent of Pakistani women feel too helpless to stand up to violence.

Culture in many countries condones violence against women. This is especially true in the case of married women who practically become the property of their husbands. Across Asia and Africa, the right of a husband to beat or physically intimidate his wife is a deeply held conviction. In other societies, such as North America, where women seem to enjoy a better status, a certain amount of violence against women is somewhat condoned or at least tolerated.

Culture-based violence against women not only manifests itself in the form of partner violence. Every year, in areas of Western Asia, North Africa and parts of South Asia, honor killings take the lives of thousands of young women. Honor killings are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by a male family member against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family. Given the many cultural restrictions and limitations imposed upon women, a woman can be targeted by her family for several reasons, including refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of sexual assault, or seeking divorce. It does not matter if the woman wants to divorce her husband because he is abusive. No, in the context of cultural norms, her actions are interpreted as an attempt to dishonor her family. Therefore, she must be killed to make up for the offense.

Yes, a woman’s actions, no matter the underlying reasons, can dishonor an entire family. For all that responsibility, you would think being a woman also carries some privileges.

Cultural views of women also affect the number of women who are born every day. In regions across China and India, there is a preference for male children over female children. This preference manifests in terms of the most unbalanced gender ratio ever to be seen in both countries. Female feoticide is an extremely callous form of violence against women.

The list goes on, but the main reason why women face violence worldwide is clear: Cultural norms allow, and even reward, violence against women.  

Family is the core of society and, as an independent entity, it reflects the norms dictated by society as a whole. However, family and society are interconnected. They affect each other constantly. As a result, if we want to change society’s view on women, we need to change the way families view and treat female family members. Conversely, in order to change the way families treat female family members, we must also change cultural views regarding women in our society.

Where do we make start? That is the real question. But, until we are able to raise the status of women worldwide, women will continue to die at hands of their husbands, fathers, and other males in their lives.

Sources:

• Amnesty International
• United Nations Population Fund
• World Health Organization
• The Advocates for Human Rights
• Gendercide Watch

By Paola Brigneti