Another woman was killed in Pakistan.
A 25-year-old Pakistani woman has been stoned to death by her family outside the Lahore High Court in a so-called ‘honour killing’ for marrying the man she loved, police said.
Farzana Iqbal was waiting for the court to open when a group of around dozen men began attacking her with bricks, said senior police officer Umer Cheema.
Her father, two brothers and former fiance were among the attackers, he said.
Ms Iqbal suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead in hospital.
All the suspects except her father escaped arrest.
He admitted killing his daughter and explained it was a matter of honour.
Many Pakistani families think a woman marrying her own choice of man brings dishonour on the family.
Ms Iqbal had been engaged to her cousin but married another man, Mr Cheema said.
Her family registered a kidnapping case against her husband, but Ms Iqbal had come to court to argue that she had married of her own free will, he said.
‘Huge legal flaw’
Around 1,000 Pakistani women are killed every year by their families in ‘honour killings’, according to Pakistani rights group, the Aurat Foundation.
However, the true figure is probably many times higher since the Aurat Foundation only compiles figures from newspaper reports.
The government does not compile national statistics.
Campaigners say few cases come to court, and those that do can take years to be heard.
No one tracks how many cases are successfully prosecuted, and even those that do result in a conviction may end with the killers walking free.
Pakistani law allows a victim’s family to forgive their killer, but in honour killings, most of the time the women’s killers are her family, said Wasim Wagha from the Aurat Foundation.
The law allows them to nominate someone to do the murder, then forgive him.
“This is a huge flaw in the law,” he said. “We are really struggling on this issue.”
Nothing is easier than killing women in this male dominated world. Go kill women in the name of whatever, you will get thousands of sympathizers and supporters.
It must really burn the Christofascists here in the US that Pakistan is so far ahead of us in treating women as disposable goods, its biblical!
Dear Madem!
This is my first comment on your blog, but I have been reading your articles since long time… I’m your biggest well-wisher.. You write for feminsm and secularism, that’s why I’m interested in your blogs…
I know we most of Indians are selective secular, but I’ve no doubt about your ideology, you are real secular…
I’m not and atheist, but support your thinking, because I don’t believe in Temple-mosque.. I don’t believe in religious superstitions.. So I like your opinions…
God bless you… (I know you don’t believe in blessings, but I do.)
busterggi @ #1 has it right.
Won’t someone please consider the feelings of the Christian leadership?
The Christians, particularly the dominionists, are green with envy. Muslim fundamentalists run entire countries, exercise hegemonic control over every aspect of culture and life in the country, and graciously collect power, money and praise in return. Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists can literally get away with murder while the Christian have to satisfy themselves with heaping on verbal abuse and pulling the strings of lawmakers and the rubes. It just isn’t fair.
I feel for the women who are born into these pathetic, barbaric, and anti-human rights countries. Most of them are literally “born to die” by the evil hands of “men.” These guys are born out of a woman’s body, yet harbor so much hate for us. See, in America, lies are perpetuated by media, films, books, etc. that men really do love women. I, as a staunch feminist do not believe this. Newspapers, violent pornography, and men’s hateful attitudes and growing violent crimes against women tell a much different story. Men even BUY “brides” from other countries, because they don’t want to deal with, and are afraid of fed up, American radical feminists like me! I strongly believe that men, if they had the chance, would treat us even worse than how they treat us now. They desire 24/7 access to our bodies, and when they cannot have that, some rape. I am sick and tired of reading about “honor killings,” rapes, stonings, etc. of women. I wasn’t aware of these horrible practices done by men to women until the media started exposing what is going on in other countries. Ignorance is bliss…Fuck you evil men who kill, hurt, silence, and rape us!
How can such barbarous acts be stopped? What will it take to change these brutal, backward cultural attitudes? I live in Canada and I am suspicious of the immigrants from India and Pakistan in fear that they might harbour the same misogyny so prevalent in their former culture. I fear they will pass their sick values on to their children now growing up in Canada. I absolutely do not want the gender balance that Canada is renowned for to be challenged by a sub-human disregard for women and while no South Asian immigrant would ever be allowed to reach the depth of depravity that would allow the stoning of a woman to death, misogyny can and does express itself in extreme violence against women. Statistics show that even in Canada violence against women is elevated in South Asian communities and we have had some cases of so-called “honour” killings. Such a misnomer— there is no honour in these acts of violence and the people who participate in them or otherwise support these practices are not fit to be called human.