Want To Kill and Get Away With Impunity?
Mohammad Shehzad
Shumshed Kehr was a teenager gal -- innocent and charming-- from rural Sindh, Pakistan who was stoned to death on December 9 by her real paternal uncle Manzoor Chandio and a mob of frenzied villagers in front of her parents in the name of the macabre rite—the “honor killing”.
She came from Agani village, Larkana—the home constituency of Benazir Bhutto, the two-time premier of Pakistan and currently the lifetime chairperson of the country’s most popular political party—the Pakistan Peoples Party.
The playful demoiselle, Kehr, was at the wedding party of her cousin. The live wedding drums excited her so much she started dancing to the rhythmic beat— an act quite natural and common in villages. Girls do dance in the “Islamic” Republic of Pakistan at such occasions! But Kehr belonged to that section of the society which is most inhumane, cruel and unkind to the fair sex. Her dance was an unpardonable offence of “blasphemy” against the “sanctity” of male’s “honor” and “ego”. It enraged and maddened her male relatives. They could not see their “honor” and “ego” being desecrated by Kehr’s “vulgar” and “obscene” gesture.
Kehr, by dancing in public had defiled their “honor” with a smudge of ignominy that could have only been washed with her blood. Her uncle fired at her. She tried to escape but was followed by him and the furious villagers. She was brutally beaten up with sticks. She was taken to her village where her hands were chopped off. She was then stoned to death! Her body is still missing.
The “apostles” of male honor hushed up the gory murder by bribing the head of the local police station. But somehow, the chairman of the district public safety commission got wind of the incident through an anonymous letter. He investigated the matter and found it to be true. He took prompt action. The police officer, Abdul Nabi, has been suspended, but he is still at large. A case for hushing up the matter has been registered against him.
According to sources, Rind had been paid a sum of Rs 60,000 (around US$ 1,000) by the killers of Kehr. The body of the girl had either been thrown into the Dadu Canal or in a well or buried at an unidentified place. A senior police official of deputy superintendent police level is investigating the matter. The police have arrested Kehr’s father, Mukhtiar Kehr. Her mother has very proudly acknowledged that her daughter was fired at and later stoned to death after her hands were chopped.
“We are not ashamed of what we have done. Kehr’s act had defamed all of us. We could not have faced the people had we not murdered her. It was necessary to save our “honor”. She deserved it,” the mother said. She also confessed that a police constable had helped the killers strike a deal with Rind.
On Dec 14, police arrested two more suspects and recovered a blood-stained sack near Agani graveyard, which may provide a clue to her dead body. However, despite searching the Dadu Canal and digging out certain spots, the police failed to recover Kehr’s body.
The families of the alleged killers have left their houses and moved to some undisclosed destination. Kehr’s mother has also been shifted from the women police station to some unidentified place.
The unbelievable aspect of this gruesome murder is the silence of the civil society and its champions. The gruesome murder is still not in the knowledge of the human rights organizations. Shahnaz Bokhari, said to be a great champion of women rights, would not yet believe something like this had happened. Asked whether she was prepared to condemn or protest this incident, her answer was: “No such incident has happened in Pakistan!” When she was told that it had happened and reported by a section of the Press, she was not willing to accept it until she was asked to peruse through some back issues of newspapers.
Shehla Zia of Aurat Foundation was contacted thrice. A message was left each time but she was unable to revert.
UKS publishes every year a diary on women. This organization closely monitors all the newspapers—English Urdu, mainstream and tabloid. It too had no idea of Kehr’s tragedy.
There is no dearth of human/women rights organizations/activists in Pakistan. Forget any demonstrations or rally, there was not a single statement in the press by any such entity to condemn this barbaric act. What does it mean? Human rights organizations don’t read newspapers or honor killings have become so common, they are no more taken seriously, even by stoning to death? Is a women’s worth not more than a {censored}roaches that could be killed anytime by anyone?
It was disappointing to find Ayla Malik (the newly elected woman parliamentarian—an ambitious proponent of women rights) clueless about this bestial murder. Most disgusting was the silence of 72 women in the new parliament over this issue.
Kehr’s horrific murder endorses the fact that Pakistan continues to be a state ruled by obnoxious customs and traditions that are condoned by country’s highest institutions such as executive, judiciary and legislature. Kehr's is the worst case of honor killing, the first ever through stoning! One finds no such precedent in Pakistan’s entire history, not even in Sindh, the most notorious for honor killing where at least one woman is killed every day in the name of this beastly tradition.
Killings are carried out at the spur of the moment under a fit of anger. Kehr was murdered in the most horrendous manner—she was shot, severely beaten, amputated before she was dug half in the ground and stoned to death.
According to the Human Rights Commission, at least 461 women have been killed by family members in Pakistan in 2002, which is more than one a day so far. In practice, killing in the name of honor is not recognized as a culpable homicide by the Pakistani law.
Adequate provisions in the garb of Islamic laws have been provided in the criminal law which help the culprits get away with cold blooded murder in the name of honor. No man, in the entire history of Pakistan has ever been awarded death sentence for such a crime. Thus honor killing has become a license to kill. If you want to get rid of your wife and an enemy simultaneously, just accuse the former of having illicit relations with the latter and kill both with impunity. You would be honorably acquitted by the courts.
Although, Pakistan has been ruled twice by a female prime minister, the law was not scrapped. Some parliamentarians during the last tenure of Nawaz Sharif demanded that honor killing should be declared a non-compoundable offence of murder. But it was outrightly rejected by the upper as well as lower house of the parliament.
Cases of honor killing would continue to rise in Pakistani society whose writ of law is defined by ignorance and the ugly system of feudalism and tribalism. This is happening in a country that claims to be the citadel of Islam. In a state which is ruled by the custodians of Islam, where a woman has been the prime minister twice, and which is at present boasts 72 women parliamentarians.
The mullahs of Mutahida Majlis Amal (MMA) who want to baptize Pakistan with the “true” spirit of Islam, are right now too busy in removing “obscene” posters from cinema halls. For them, honor killing is not an issue. Their preference is to save the “honor” of those actresses whose semi-nude body parts are bulging out on cinema posters. Once they have covered them, hope is, they would find time to think about protecting the honor of ordinary women. May be then they may bring some honor to this male-dominated society.
Copyright Mohammad Shehzad
Mohammad Shehzad
Shumshed Kehr was a teenager gal -- innocent and charming-- from rural Sindh, Pakistan who was stoned to death on December 9 by her real paternal uncle Manzoor Chandio and a mob of frenzied villagers in front of her parents in the name of the macabre rite—the “honor killing”.
She came from Agani village, Larkana—the home constituency of Benazir Bhutto, the two-time premier of Pakistan and currently the lifetime chairperson of the country’s most popular political party—the Pakistan Peoples Party.
The playful demoiselle, Kehr, was at the wedding party of her cousin. The live wedding drums excited her so much she started dancing to the rhythmic beat— an act quite natural and common in villages. Girls do dance in the “Islamic” Republic of Pakistan at such occasions! But Kehr belonged to that section of the society which is most inhumane, cruel and unkind to the fair sex. Her dance was an unpardonable offence of “blasphemy” against the “sanctity” of male’s “honor” and “ego”. It enraged and maddened her male relatives. They could not see their “honor” and “ego” being desecrated by Kehr’s “vulgar” and “obscene” gesture.
Kehr, by dancing in public had defiled their “honor” with a smudge of ignominy that could have only been washed with her blood. Her uncle fired at her. She tried to escape but was followed by him and the furious villagers. She was brutally beaten up with sticks. She was taken to her village where her hands were chopped off. She was then stoned to death! Her body is still missing.
The “apostles” of male honor hushed up the gory murder by bribing the head of the local police station. But somehow, the chairman of the district public safety commission got wind of the incident through an anonymous letter. He investigated the matter and found it to be true. He took prompt action. The police officer, Abdul Nabi, has been suspended, but he is still at large. A case for hushing up the matter has been registered against him.
According to sources, Rind had been paid a sum of Rs 60,000 (around US$ 1,000) by the killers of Kehr. The body of the girl had either been thrown into the Dadu Canal or in a well or buried at an unidentified place. A senior police official of deputy superintendent police level is investigating the matter. The police have arrested Kehr’s father, Mukhtiar Kehr. Her mother has very proudly acknowledged that her daughter was fired at and later stoned to death after her hands were chopped.
“We are not ashamed of what we have done. Kehr’s act had defamed all of us. We could not have faced the people had we not murdered her. It was necessary to save our “honor”. She deserved it,” the mother said. She also confessed that a police constable had helped the killers strike a deal with Rind.
On Dec 14, police arrested two more suspects and recovered a blood-stained sack near Agani graveyard, which may provide a clue to her dead body. However, despite searching the Dadu Canal and digging out certain spots, the police failed to recover Kehr’s body.
The families of the alleged killers have left their houses and moved to some undisclosed destination. Kehr’s mother has also been shifted from the women police station to some unidentified place.
The unbelievable aspect of this gruesome murder is the silence of the civil society and its champions. The gruesome murder is still not in the knowledge of the human rights organizations. Shahnaz Bokhari, said to be a great champion of women rights, would not yet believe something like this had happened. Asked whether she was prepared to condemn or protest this incident, her answer was: “No such incident has happened in Pakistan!” When she was told that it had happened and reported by a section of the Press, she was not willing to accept it until she was asked to peruse through some back issues of newspapers.
Shehla Zia of Aurat Foundation was contacted thrice. A message was left each time but she was unable to revert.
UKS publishes every year a diary on women. This organization closely monitors all the newspapers—English Urdu, mainstream and tabloid. It too had no idea of Kehr’s tragedy.
There is no dearth of human/women rights organizations/activists in Pakistan. Forget any demonstrations or rally, there was not a single statement in the press by any such entity to condemn this barbaric act. What does it mean? Human rights organizations don’t read newspapers or honor killings have become so common, they are no more taken seriously, even by stoning to death? Is a women’s worth not more than a {censored}roaches that could be killed anytime by anyone?
It was disappointing to find Ayla Malik (the newly elected woman parliamentarian—an ambitious proponent of women rights) clueless about this bestial murder. Most disgusting was the silence of 72 women in the new parliament over this issue.
Kehr’s horrific murder endorses the fact that Pakistan continues to be a state ruled by obnoxious customs and traditions that are condoned by country’s highest institutions such as executive, judiciary and legislature. Kehr's is the worst case of honor killing, the first ever through stoning! One finds no such precedent in Pakistan’s entire history, not even in Sindh, the most notorious for honor killing where at least one woman is killed every day in the name of this beastly tradition.
Killings are carried out at the spur of the moment under a fit of anger. Kehr was murdered in the most horrendous manner—she was shot, severely beaten, amputated before she was dug half in the ground and stoned to death.
According to the Human Rights Commission, at least 461 women have been killed by family members in Pakistan in 2002, which is more than one a day so far. In practice, killing in the name of honor is not recognized as a culpable homicide by the Pakistani law.
Adequate provisions in the garb of Islamic laws have been provided in the criminal law which help the culprits get away with cold blooded murder in the name of honor. No man, in the entire history of Pakistan has ever been awarded death sentence for such a crime. Thus honor killing has become a license to kill. If you want to get rid of your wife and an enemy simultaneously, just accuse the former of having illicit relations with the latter and kill both with impunity. You would be honorably acquitted by the courts.
Although, Pakistan has been ruled twice by a female prime minister, the law was not scrapped. Some parliamentarians during the last tenure of Nawaz Sharif demanded that honor killing should be declared a non-compoundable offence of murder. But it was outrightly rejected by the upper as well as lower house of the parliament.
Cases of honor killing would continue to rise in Pakistani society whose writ of law is defined by ignorance and the ugly system of feudalism and tribalism. This is happening in a country that claims to be the citadel of Islam. In a state which is ruled by the custodians of Islam, where a woman has been the prime minister twice, and which is at present boasts 72 women parliamentarians.
The mullahs of Mutahida Majlis Amal (MMA) who want to baptize Pakistan with the “true” spirit of Islam, are right now too busy in removing “obscene” posters from cinema halls. For them, honor killing is not an issue. Their preference is to save the “honor” of those actresses whose semi-nude body parts are bulging out on cinema posters. Once they have covered them, hope is, they would find time to think about protecting the honor of ordinary women. May be then they may bring some honor to this male-dominated society.
Copyright Mohammad Shehzad
