Nos soeurs, quand elles nous servent. Au Mali, nous les tuons pas, mais nous
les renions au moment meme ou leur sens de la famille devrait signifier le
plus.
-Moumine
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan's main human rights body said Wednesday
that at least 461 women have been killed by family members in so-called
"honor killings" this year, an increase from the year before.
In such killings, women are murdered to protect the "family honor" for
immoral behavior ranging from sex outside marriage, dating, talking to men,
being raped or even cooking poorly.
The 2002 figure is up from about 372 honor killings the year before and
demonstrates the need for increased protection for women in Pakistan, the
private Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said.
The group said it also shows an apparent lack of commitment to fight the
practice by Pakistan's military government, which had made repeated promises
to improve women's right in this poor country of 145 million people.
"Crimes against women continued to rise this year, and at least 461 women
were killed alone in the two provinces of Pakistan in the name of honor,"
Kamla Hayat, a senior official with the rights commission, told The
Associated Press.
Hayat said the number of honor killings could be much higher, and that her
group is still in the process of compiling a report on crimes against women.
Such killings also occur in some other Muslim countries.
Hayat, however, said the increase in recorded honor killings might also be
the results of an increased willingness by family and friends to report the
crime as opposition to the practice grows in some areas.
"We are mainly relying on the data collected from the two provinces_ Punjab
and Sindh," Hayat said. The 2001 figures are based on reports from the same
two provinces.
She said the commission doesn't have enough resources to operate in
Baluchistan and the North Western Frontier — deeply conservative provinces
that share a border with Afghanistan (news - web sites), where former
Taliban regime had introduced a harsher version of Islam.
The fact that those conservative regions are not included in the report
suggest the number of actual killings is higher.
According to the commission's figures, out of 161 slain women in Punjab
state, 67 were killed by their brothers, 49 by their husbands and rest of
their were executed by other family members.
In seven cases, sons killed their mothers.
On Nov. 11, a young woman was hacked to death with an ax by close relatives
in the southern city of Faisalabad on suspicion that she was having "immoral
relations" with a man. The man was also killed.
Also in November, a widow was killed by her brother in the industrial city
of Gujranwala because the brother suspected she was living with a man
outside marriage.
In those two cases, the culprits surrendered to police and are awaiting
trial, said Mirrat Malik, a research assistant at the commission.
In June, a woman in Punjab was gang-raped on the order of a tribal council
as punishment for her teenage brother having sex with a woman from another
clan. In that case, six men were convicted of attacking her and sentenced to
hang. But in most honor killings, the perpetrators are rarely punished.
"Unfortunately, police in Pakistan either don't arrest such killers or they
are not treated as murderers," Hayat said. For example, of Punjab's 161
cases, only 27 killers were arrested. No figures were available on
convictions.
But officials said the government has been closely monitoring such crimes
against women and move swiftly whenever they are reported.
"The government has recently made some changes in the laws to give more
protection to the women, and it will be unfair to say that the government is
quiet on the subject," said Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, Director General at
Pakistan's Interior Ministry.
However, the situation may not improve soon. Pakistani religious parties who
made a strong showing in the Oct. 10 parliamentary elections are also in
favor of giving only "limited" independence to the women, who make up half
of Pakistan's population of 140 million.
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer
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