In the name of honour

In some tribal societies in Pakistan, those suspected of illicit relations are killed and the killer morally and legally supported by society. MASSOUD ANSARI writes about crimes committed in the name of tradition.

LAST month, in village Sinjhoro in southern Pakistan, 18-year-old Bilkees was detained in a room for a night. The next morning, Bilkees saw her brother Ghulam Qadir enter the room with an old fashioned pickaxe in his hand. Bilkees tried to talk to her brother and the villager accompanying him but both of them did not listen to her.

Instead, they dragged her towards the nearby fields, tied her to a tree and Qadir started hitting her with the pickaxe. Her head slumped to the floor forming a pool of blood around her lifeless body.

The reason for Bilkees being killed in such a brutal manner was that her brother had seen her talking to a boy. Qadir decided to kill Bilkees to save the "family honour". No relatives lodged a complaint against Qadir and Bilkees was buried without any funeral rituals being observed.

Bilkees' murder, performed in the name of "honour" is not an isolated case in Pakistan. In tribal societies, those suspected of "illicit" sexual relations are labelled Karo-Kari (Karo being the male and Kari the female) and killed. Anyone who kills a woman for being a Kari and the man she is involved with, is considered to be gairatmand (honourable) and is morally and legally supported by his kinsmen.

In another incident, 14-year-old Fariyal was killed by her brothers when they suspected her of having a relationship with a villager in the Ghotiki district of the southern Sindh province. Her brother Iqbal Jatoi, who later surrendered to the police said, "We do not allow any woman to play with our family's name. If anybody does it, she deserves nothing but death."

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan nearly 1,000 Karo-Kari killings took place in the country last year. Analysts, however, maintain that this figure is too low as many of the "honour" killings go unreported. On an average, regional newspapers in the country report almost five killings in the name of tribal "honour" every day.

Not that anybody ever reports these "honour" killings, but if the case does reach the court, the law has a loophole which can be exploited. Article 232 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Pakistan says that if anybody commits a murder after a grave and sudden provocation, the accused does not deserve capital punishment. Due to this loophole, if the accused is caught, it takes very little time to prove that the murder was committed on a grave and sudden provocation and the accused is released in no time.

Says Mustafa Mahesar, a lawyer, "In honour killings, most of the time the killers surrender before the police and confess their crime." This confession makes it easier for the accused to justify the killing as an outcome of a sudden and grave provocation.

The ritual of Karo-Kari demands that the woman involved in an illicit relationship be killed before the man. According to Sindhi short story writer Manzoor Kohiyar, the Rind tribe follows an elaborate ritual for "honour" killings. The adulteress is dressed in new clothes and an elder kinswoman, called a'ai godi informs the girl that it is a religious obligation to kill an adulteress. The girl is then asked to bow her head, which is severed with an axe from behind.

There have been some instances like the three women in Mirokhan village in Larkana district who shot dead a young student for his alleged liaison with the wife of one of their relatives (the woman had been killed earlier), but in a majority of the Karo- Kari incidents, the dice is heavily loaded against the women.

Once a woman is suspected of having an illicit relationship, there is no escape for her from a brutal death. In fact, she is ostracised even after she is killed. In Jacobabad and Shikarpur districts in the southern Sindh province for instance, the bodies of the murdered women are either thrown into the river or buried in the Karin-jo-Kabrustan (graveyard of the adulteresses), on the outskirts of Lakhi Ghulam Shah, a sub-division of Shikarpur district in southern Sindh.

The Karo, however, has a number of ways out. He can save his life by paying money to the Kari's family. Often if a man is interested in a girl who does not return his affections, he dubs some one in the girl's family a Karo and then demands the girl in exchange for sparing his life.

Says Ghaffar Abbassi, a sociologist, "Often an allegation of Karo against a male is levelled to extort money from the relatives." For instance, in Benazir Bhutto's hometown Larkana, a Magsi tribesman killed his 63-year-old mother and labelled a bank officer as Karo. The officer was blackmailed and money extorted from him for sparing his life.

There is only one way out for a Kari - but for that she has to pay a very heavy price. If a Kari manages to seek sanctuary in the mansion of a feudal chieftain or in the house of any spiritual leader, she can be saved from being killed. But in return for her life, she has to work like a slave and is often also sexually abused by the tribal chiefs and their relatives.

In a report published last year, Amnesty International blamed Pakistani authorities for turning a blind eye to the practice of "honour" killings. Said the report, "In Pakistan, honour crimes are justified in the name of tradition - but the traditions themselves have been distorted and corrupted to allow for widespread abuse."

However, Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has now announced that his government means business. Speaking recently at a human rights seminar in Islamabad he said that "honour" killings would be treated as murder cases.

But voices of dissent to this announcement have already started appearing. Former Defence Minister and a member of the suspended National Assembly, Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani, who is also a tribal chieftain, justifies this primitive ritual saying, "It is an old tribal ritual, which people sometimes misuse for their vested interests. But a genuine Karo and Kari cannot be spared, both of them must be eliminated if proved guilty." In his view, correct legislation should be passed to ensure that the system is not abused. "This is a centuries old tradition and cannot be removed by the stroke of a pen," he adds.

(c) Women's Feature Service

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Quick desserts
Next     : Creative learning