"A nation is not lost as long as the women's hearts are still high. Only when the women's hearts are on the ground then all is finished, and the nation dies." --- (An old Native American proverb)

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Women in Pakistan face all kinds of gross violence and abuse at the hands of the male perpetuators’ family members and state agents.  Multiple form of violence includes rape; domestic abuse as spousal murder, mutilation, burning and disfiguring faces by acid, beatings; ritual honor killings and custodial abuse and torture.

Women in Pakistan live in fear. They face death by shooting, burning or killing with axes if they are deemed to have brought shame on the family. They are killed for supposed 'illicit' relationships, for marrying men of their choice, for divorcing abusive husbands. They are even murdered by their kin if they are raped as they are thereby deemed to have brought shame on their family. The truth of the suspicion does not matter -- merely the allegation is enough to bring dishonor on the family and therefore justifies the slaying.

The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men. Male relatives virtually own them and punish contraventions of their proprietary control with violence. For the most part, women bear traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and behavior with stoicism, as part of their fate, but exposure to media, the work of women's groups and a greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women's rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women. But if women begin to assert their rights, however tentatively, the response is harsh and immediate: the curve of honor killings has raised parallel to the rise in awareness of rights.
Every year hundreds of women are known to die as a result of honor killings. Karo Kari is a compound word literally meaning "black male" and "black female," metaphoric terms for adulterer and adulteress. Being so labeled leads more often than not to the murder of both man and woman allegedly guilty of having an illicit affair. This is especially true in the rural areas of the southern province of Sindh. In other parts of the country, women are more likely to be accused of sexual improprieties and murdered in order to wash the sullied family honor.

Many more cases go unreported and almost all go unpunished. The isolation and fear of women living under such threats are compounded by state indifference to and complicity in women's oppression. Police almost invariably take the man's side in honor killings or domestic murders, and rarely prosecute the killers. Even when the men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they usually receive a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their female relatives with virtual impunity. Specific laws hamper redress as they discriminate against women.

The isolation of women is completed by the almost total absence of anywhere to hide. There are few women's shelters, and any woman attempting to travel on her own is a target for abuse by police, strangers or male relatives hunting for her. For some women suicide appears the only means of escape.

Abuses by private actors such as honor killings are crimes under the country's criminal laws. However, systematic failure by the state to prevent and to investigate them and to punish perpetrators leads to international responsibility of the state. The Government of Pakistan has taken no measures to end honor killings and to hold perpetrators to account. It has ignored Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which it ratified in 1996, which obliges states to "modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women" to eliminate prejudice and discriminatory traditions.

Some apologists claim that traditional practices as genuine manifestations of a community's culture may not be subjected to scrutiny from the perspective of rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Against this, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action stated: "All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated" and asserted the duty of states "to promote all human rights and fundamental freedoms". The United Nations General Assembly in 1993 adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women which urges states not to "invoke custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligation" to eliminate discriminatory treatment of women.

 The rural Pakistan harbors a special category of violence against women known as "crimes of honor". The expression is reminiscent of other societies that used to or still do take a lenient view of crimes committed in response to adultery or in pursuit of vendettas. But the sheer scale of the phenomenon in Pakistan makes it a case apart. The crimes of honor are a pre-Islamic practice. They have no real basis in religion but are encouraged by the rise of religious fundamentalism of which women are the prime victims. The problem of widespread impunity is essentially cultural and social. Crimes of honor are an archaic custom deeply rooted in the tribal societies of Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier Provinces, as well as those of Punjab and Sindh, where they are known as karo kari killings.

In these rigidly patriarchal communities, wives, daughters, sisters and mothers are killed for the least sexual indiscretion and upon the slightest suspicion of adultery. 

As I am of the opinion that the distinction between a woman being guilty and a woman being alleged to be guilty of illicit sex is irrelevant. What impacts on the man's honor is the public perception, the belief in her infidelity. It is this which blackens honor and for which she is killed ... It is not the truth that honor is about, but public perception of honor". Against this background, the oft-repeated story of the man who dreams his wife is being unfaithful to him, then wakes up and stabs her to death, no longer has the power to shock. Executions are typically carried out by the victim's brothers, husband or uncles. They may be performed in public, by axe or by gun, depending on the region, and the murderer often gets away. In many cases her place in society is summed up by the adage Kor ya Gor (home or death). Last year a leader-writer on the English-language daily Dawn wrote: "A woman in Upper Sindh has no individual entity, she is just a chattel. She can be killed by her own son, husband or brother, or her in-laws, with complete impunity and merely on the suspicion of being a Kari. She can be killed in cold blood if she declines, which she seldom does, to marry a person chosen by her parents.

Every year in Pakistan hundreds of women, of all ages and in all parts of the country, are reported killed in the name of honor.  Many more cases go unreported.  Almost all go unpunished.  The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions, which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men many of whom impose their virtually proprietarily control over women with violence.  For the most part, women bear the traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies; speech and behavior with stoicism, as part of their kismat (fate), but exposure to media, the work of women's rights groups and the greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women's rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women.  But if women begin to exert these rights, however tentatively, they often face more repression and punishment: the curve of honor killings has increased parallel to the rise in the awareness in rights.  State indifference, discriminatory laws and the gender bias of much of the country's police force and judiciary have ensured virtual impunity for perpetuators of honor killings. In this system, when a wife, sister or daughter is accused, it is the man who is seen as the victim. The community therefore expects him to mete out punishment. Not to do so would be an even greater dishonor. In such communities an "honor killing" is considered a just punishment, not a crime. This view is also shared by many Pakistanis who do not belong to tribal societies. Nevertheless, honor or no honor, murder is murder under Pakistani law. But the law is difficult to apply. There is widespread official indulgence for those who commit honor killings. Therefore Honor killings are widespread. Since they frequently go unpunished, they are increasingly used to cover up other crimes.
 
In the international human rights arena, honor crimes against women are understood as a form of domestic violence, i.e. violence against women in the family or community.  Based on the dichotomy of private and public spheres and perception that the former was somehow less significant, domestic violence was earlier perceived as private acts within the family and not as an issue of civil and political rights.  The United Nations has explicitly recognized violence against women as human rights issue involving state responsibility.  The UN Special Reporter on violence against women has defined domestic violence as “violence perpetrated in the domestic sphere which targets women because of their role within that sphere or as violence which is intended to impact, directly and negatively, on women within the domestic sphere.  Such violence may be carried out by both private and public actors and agents.  This conceptual framework intentionally departs from traditional definitions of domestic violence, which address violence perpetrated by inmates against inmates…"( UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/53,para 28).

Concept of Honor:

The time has come to put an end to such violence against women.  It is paradoxical that women who enjoy such a poor status in society and have no standing in family should become a focal point of a false and primitive concept of family honor, which they are accepted to uphold at the expense of their inclinations and preference in the matters of marriage.

The logic of tribal tradition turns conceptions of victim and perpetrator, right or wrong on their own head: women who are killed or flee a killing are not victims but are considered guilty in the tribal setting.  The man to whom a woman belongs, whether a wife, sister or daughter, has to kill her to restore his honor.  He is the victim as he has suffered loss first to his honor and then of the woman he has to kill.  Consequently he is the aggrieved person with whom the sympathies with the tribal setting lie, not the possibly innocent woman he killed.  A man whose honor has been damaged must publicly demonstrate his power to safeguard it by killing those that damaged it and therefore restore it.  In the tribal setting an honor killing is not a crime but a legitimate action, seen as the appropriate punishment for those who contravene the honor code.  The man who kills for reasons of honour becomes ghairatman (possessing honour) and is morally and legally supported by his kinsmen.  A man's ability to protect his honor is judged by his family and his neighbors and is taunted by tano (institution bordering insult ) that he is " socially impotent" and beghairat (without honour) if he fails to kill a woman of his household who has damaged his honor.  Honor Killings are consequently not hidden away but openly performed, often ritually and with the maximum spilling blood.  Further, the family of alleged karo never kills as they do not lose honor-on contrary by capturing other man's wife or daughter, they have increased their honor.
 
The use of word honor for such a dishonorable act is a tragedy.  The people who take honor pride in those killings should be ashamed and not proud.  All over the world women are provided the right of freedom if independence to make decisions regarding their own life.

Honor of Man:

The possession and control of desirable commodities, especially zan, zar, zameen( women, gold and land) is closely linked with perception of man's honour.  These objects are worthy of possession and need to be control on account of their inherent value.  Ghairat (honour) is closely linked with izzat, respect or standing in society.  Izzat bases itself on possession, wealth, and property. “A man's property, wealth and all that is linked with these are the sum of total value and therefore it is an integral part of honor of man, tribe etc.  Therefore when the rights of the women are transferred from her father to the man she is marrying, the guardianship of honor shifts as well".
 A key observation is that "although honor is located in material wealth, the language and expression of honor resides in the body.  Women's bodies are considered to be the repository of family honor".  Honor in the traditional settings is a male prerogative it is men who possess zan, zar and zamin that allows them to hold their heads up; women have no honor of their own.

Origin of Honor-Killings:

Originally a Baluch and Pashtun tribal custom, honor killings are founded in the twin concepts of honor and commodification of women.  Women are married off for a bride price paid to the father.  This was basically a baloch and pashtun tribal custom, honor killings are not only reported in Baluchistan, NWFP and Upper Sindh which has a Baloch influx, but in Punjab province as well.  If this commodity is 'damaged' the proprietor, the father or husband, has a right to compensation.  If a husband kills his wife for alleged sexual misbehavior and alleged 'lover' gets away, the latter has to pay the husband compensation, for the wife that was lost and for his own life, which was spared.  Often the dead woman's alleged 'lover' hands over a sister to the husband, in addition to a larger amount of money. 
 Satta-watta marriages, which involve exchange of siblings across generations, put an additional burden on women to abide by their father's marriage arrangements.  Often women choosing another spouse are abducted by their own relatives and not heard from again.   Standards of honor and chastity are not equally applied to men and women in Pakistan, though the honor code applies to both equally.

The Rationale of Honor Killings:

Two main factors contribute against women in the name of honor: women's commodification and conceptions of honor.   The concept of women as an object or commodity, not a human being endowed with dignity and rights equal to those of men, is deeply rooted in tribal culture.  Women's are considered the property of the males in their family irrespective of their class, ethnic or religious groups.  The owner of the property has the right to decide its fate.  The concept of ownership has turned women into a commodity which can be exchanged, bought and sold."  Similarly, In the tribal society of Sindh and Baluchistan, a woman is equated with money…..But although she has monetary value, her worth is essentially that of a commodity and this view goes far towards creating a situation when she may be butchered if she transgresses the conditions under which she is bound to a man for life.  She may also be freely traded or given away as part of a karo-kari settlement.  
 
Ownership rights are at stake when women are to be married, almost always in Pakistan by arrangement of their parents.  A major consideration is the young woman's future inheritance rights over family property or assets.  In Pakistan, feudal and tribal customs dictate that property be kept in the family.  It is not uncommon for girls to be married to a paternal uncle or aunt's sons….. so that control over the estate (jagir) is not weakened which would happen if a daughter married an outsider.  Feudalism do not want their jagirs dismembered on any account while syeds only marry within their community; on account of their high status, syed women observe strict seclusion to the extent that some may never leave the home in which they are born.].  This is more common in Sindh. 

In Punjab daughters are kept unmarried till the age of menopause when they take up the Quran and Tasbih [prayer beads] voluntarily.  While women are usually forced to accept such martial decisions made by their fathers, men have the possibility to marry a second wife according to their liking and lead a life in the public sphere where they can find fulfillment.  Women by contrast are in the vast majority of cases confined almost entirely to the char divari, the four walls of the home.  The commodification of women is also evident in that every marriage in tribal society involves payment of the bride price (vulver in NWFP and Balochistan and verkro in Sindh).  The girl or woman is exchanged for a price in the market.  The price is paid by the groom to the father's to the groom's/husband's possession and custody.  The bride price varies according to status, health, beauty and age of the woman and, like other possessions, the bride subsequently adds to the honor of the groom.  To receive a bride in exchange for a daughter is honorable not only to the family but also to the woman concerned whose worth is thereby acknowledged.
 Sometimes a bride price is taken in the form of another woman.  Men exchange their daughters, even granddaughters, for new wives for themselves.  While demanding a low bride price for their daughters, some men ask in addition that the as yet unborn grand-daughters be handed to them to be married off for another bride price.
 

The commodification of women is also the basis of the practise of khoon baha [literally: blood money], i.e. the compensation negotiated to end a dispute which besides money may involve a woman to be given to a adversary.  For instance, a woman may be handed over to compensate a man whose honour has been damaged or to settle a conflict between two tribes or families.  The standard price to settle a conflict is one girl above seven years of age or two girls under seven and it is also seen that the girls' milk teeth have been broken to create the sense that they were above seven years of age so, that a family would only have to give one girl.
 

The Pashtoon have codified the honour system in the Pashtoonwali, it revolves around four concepts: 'malmastya', the obligation to show hospitality; 'badal', revenge; 'nanawaty', asylum; and 'nang', honor.  A man's property, wealth and all that is linked with these is a sum total of his honor value.  A woman is also an object of value and therefore is an integral part of the honor of a man, tribe etc.  Therefore when the rights of a woman are transferred from a father to the man she is marrying, the guardianship of honor shifts as well.  Perceived as the embodiment of the honor of their family, women must guard their virginity and chastity.  By entering an adulterous relationship a woman subverts the order of things, undermines the ownership rights of others to her body and indirectly challenges the social order as a whole.  She becomes black, Kari (Sindhi) or siahkari (Baluch).  Women’s' bodies must not be given or taken away except in a regulated exchange, effected by men.  Women's physical chastity is of upper most importance and by the merest hint of 'illicit' sexual interest a woman loses her inherent value as an object worthy of possession and therefore her right to life.  In most tribes, there is no other punishment for a woman accused of 'illicit' sex but death. 
 

Kari's remain dishonored even after death.  Their dead bodies are thrown in rivers or buried in special hidden Kari graveyards.  Nobody mourns for them or honors their memory by performing their relevant rights.  Karo's by contrast are reportedly buried in the communal graveyard.  There are different modes of honor killings.  In Kandh Kot and its suburbs, the Kari woman is dressed in red.  Henna is applied to her hands, and then she is taken to the bank of the river where she is shot or slaughtered with an axe.  Sometimes the girl is taken to a mountain and her neck is broken.  It has been witnessed that the Kari woman is most severely tortured before being killed.  The researcher has studied and analyzed numerous Karo Kari cases.  An old man was a witness to such an incident.  He saw that a blood thirsty man with the razor, arrogantly walked onto the right side of his victim, held her right ear tightly and sliced it off as her chocking voice repeated “I am innocent."  Wiping the blood from the razor on the dirty palm of his left hand, the man turned to the left ear and slashed it off amid screams beseeching him to pardon her.  The nose and ears were then placed atop her the victim's head and the man holding her hair slowly loosened his grip, walked away from the scene while the other two stretched her arms as if they would detach the limbs from her body.  Amid her shrieks, the gunman took out his gun and pulled the trigger while others repeated their earlier words, "This is the fate of the kari."  The bullet killed the girl instantly.  She collapsed and the two men simultaneously raised their legs, violently kicked the body away into the canal.   In some areas, such women are sold.  Their original community must never see a banished woman again and she must never visit her family.  In a world where individual identity is closely linked to being part of a community such banishment maybe experienced as an extremely harsh punishment.
 

The perception of what defiles honor appears to have been continually widened to the point where it is now loose.  Male control does not only extend to a woman's body and her sexual behavior but all of her behavior, including her movements, her language and her actions.  In any of these areas, defiance by women translates into undermining male honor and ultimately family and community honor.  Severe punishments are reported for bringing food late, for answering back or for undertaking forbidden trips etc.  A man's honor defiled by a woman's alleged or real sexual misdemeanor or other defiance is only partly restored by killing her.  He also has to kill the man allegedly involved.  Since a kari is murdered first, the karo often hears about it and flees, aided by the fact that unlike the woman, he is both familiar with the world outside the house and can move freely in it.  But karos who escape will not be able to return to normal life.  Nobody will give such a man shelter, he remains on the run until he and his family are ready to negotiate with the victim, the man whose honour the karo defiled and who has kill his wife, sister or daughter.  If both sides agree, a faislo [agreement, meeting] or jirga [tribal council] is setup, attended by representatives of both sides and healed by the local respectable, the tribal sardar [leader], his subordinate or a local landlord, depending on the status of the parties involved.  The traditional justice dispensed by the jirga or fasilo is about restoration of the balance disturbed by a woman's alleged misdemeanor.  It is not intended to elicit truth and punish the culprit.  The balance is restored by negotiating compensation for damages.  The karo who gets away has to pay compensation for his life to be spared, for the loss of honor of the man to whom the kari belonged and for the woman the man killing her lost.  The amount of compensation is fixed within each tribe, but jirgas also decide how the compensation amount is to be disbursed.  Compensation can be either in the form of money or the transfer of a woman or both.  Several sardars think that their decisions effectively settle disputes and provide lasting peace; however this claim is not borne out by the evidence.  Such settlements are often flouted, and women killed despite sardar's decisions.  To break a faislo or jirga settlement is not dishonorable.  Killing and violence as well as deceit and breaking of promises are not dishonorable in a context of intending to restore honor, they are not crimes.  This partly explains why sardar's mediation efforts do not bring lasting peace.  Karos who have paid heavy compensation are sometimes killed years later; karis who are returned to their families on promises of safety may be killed.  It is also believed if injustice occurs or compensation is inadequate, karo-kari killings can lead to a series of further killings.            

Reasons for the increasing incidents of Honour Killings.

There are a number of reasons for the incidence of honour-killings:

1.  Tribalization of formal laws:
 Some observers have also pointed out that the "apparent tribalization of formal law" may have created the impression of official sanction for this orientation which plays in to the popular perception that it is acceptable to take the law in to one's own hands.

2.  Brutalization of society:
The progressive brutalization of Pakistani society over the past few decades is partly responsible.  It was brutalized when capital punishment was made a trivial matter by prescribing it as the minimum punishment for a variety of breaches of martial law regulation, and when several new offences added to the capital crimes.  

3.   Awareness-one of the reasons:
More women are now aware of their rights.  This credit largely goes to the awareness raising work women's rights groups but also to the media and mobility of women.  Women's refusal to comply with the decision or traditions to violate their newly discovered rights has led to backlash from men apprehending loss from control, involving violence, killings and other such threats.  "There is a fear of change (viewed as westernization) and the repercussions of these fear/reactions are borne by women.  This reactionary trend results in a great number of honor killings in urban areas where women are more mobile and there is a bigger chance that their activities will be seen as suspect.

5.  Seeking Of Heavy Weapons:
The increased access to heavy weapons by rural population in the wake of Afghanistan conflict, has made easier to settle honor issues, violently.

6.  Economic Decline: 
The economic decline of the vast rural populations has delayed education and democratization and increased the lure to exploit the honor system and kill women for the sake of compensation payment.  The stress factors of growing poverty and deprivation contribute to the 'demand' factor.

7.  Government's Failure To Seek Effective Measure:
Key among the contributing factors are the government's failure to seek effective measures to end the practice and the virtual impunity with which such killings are carried out.  The bias laws like Hadood, Qiyas and Diyat have contributed to the increase in Honor Killings.  The discrimination of the Police and the Judiciary also contributes to the increase in honor killings.  Lack of training of medico-legal personnel, inadequate equipment and facilities, inappropriate focus on the virginity status, haphazard procedures, mistreatment of victims, the biased role of the office of the medical examiner and the wrong use of the medical evidence at trial, all lead to the increased level of discrimination against women which in fact is being carried out by our government.

Causes of Honor-Killings:

1.  The Widening Perception of Honor-Killings:

The number of honor killings appears to be steadily increasing as the perception of what constitutes honor widens.  There are honor killings for rape, for seeking marriage and for seeking divorce.  Women are not given a chance to clear up possible misunderstandings.  Tradition decrees only one method to restore honor-to kills the offending woman.
 

A woman subjected to rape brings shame to her family just as she would when engaging in a consensual relationship.  

Expressing a desire to choose a marriage partner and actually contracting a marriage with a partner of one's choice in a society where majority of marriages are arranged by parents are considered major acts of defiance.  Women who marry a man of their choice take recourse to state law, placing themselves outside the traditional shame; by the public nature of their action, they shame their guardians leading them to resort to violence to restore their honor.  Frequently fathers bring charges of zina against their daughters who have married partners of their choice.  But even when such a complaint is before a court, some men resort to private justice in the name of honor killings.
 

2.  Misusing Honor Killings for Self Interests:
This scheme provides easy opportunities for the unscrupulous to make money, obtain a woman in supposed compensation or to conceal other crimes, in the near certainty that the honor killings, if they come to court at all, will be dealt with leniently.  As I am of the opinion that a whole 'honor killing industry' has sprung up with the range of stake holders including tribes, people, police administration and tribal mediators, "vested interests…use of excuse as a blanket cover for a multitude of sins".

3.  To Camouflage Murder:
Reports abound about men who, having murdered a man over issues not connected with the honor, kill a woman of their own family alleged as Kari to the murdered man as an honor killing.  By projecting the murder as an honor killing, the murderer will escape the death penalty and will evade the need to pay compensation for the murder.

4. Lust for Money: 
The lust for money appears to have motivated many men to accuse their mothers, wives or female relatives of dishonoring their families and killing them in order to extract compensation from the alleged Karos who escape the killings.  

5. Property and land:
The desire to obtain land may also lie behind some fake honor killings.  "Land is the main issue in Sindh society, all the rest follows from that.  If a woman owns land; her brother may kill her to get land; but even poor families now-a-days imitate this pattern even though there is no property to grab, simply to ascertain themselves as equals in the system".

6. To un pay loans:
Unable to repay loans, some men kill women of their own family to implicate someone in the debtor's family and ensure that the loan would be extinguished in compensation. 

7.  To have a Specific Woman as Compensation:
The fact that women are often given as compensations when illicit relations are alleged, has led to further perversion of the practice.  If a woman refuses to marry a man, he may declare a man of her family a karo and demand her in compensation for not killing him.  In some cases, he may even for this purpose kill a woman of his own family to lend weight to the allegation.

Types of Honor Killings:

1. Honor Killings For seeking Marriage:
The notion of the defilement of the male honor has extended over time to include not 0nly sexual 'misdemeanor' but also other acts of male control.  Expressing a desire to choose a marriage partner and actually contracting a marriage with a partner of one's choice in a society where the majority of marriages are arranged by parents are considered major acts of defiance.  Such acts are perceived to defile the honor of man to whom the young woman belongs and who can expect a bride price at her marriage.  Women who marry a man of their choice moreover take recourse to state law, placing themselves outside the traditional scheme; by the public nature of their action they shame their guardians leading them to resort to violence to restore their honor.  Marriage arrangements are delicate and seen to involve serious balancing acts; any disturbance of this balance by a woman refusing a father's choice are considered to affect the father's standing in society.
 

Sometimes women are killed for alleged sexual impropriety in a marriage arrangement context when different male relatives have different marital arrangements in mind and the woman is caught in between conflicting requirements of obedience.  

Watta-Satta marriages, in which siblings are married to siblings of another family, put an additional burden on women to abide by parental marriage arrangement and to neither refuse nor seek divorce.  All marriage arrangements are understood to be about balance, involving the transfer of women for an appropriate bride price; in Watta-Satta marriages the balance additionally involves exchange of siblings.  The two couples so linked must remain perfectly balanced for the sake of the honor of the parents responsible for the arrangement.

2. Honor Killings For Seeking Divorce:
Several women who have sought divorce through the courts have been injured, killed or never been heard of again.  Seeking divorce gives a strong signal of public defiance which calls for punitive action against such women to restore male honor within the traditional honor scheme.
 

3. Honor Killings For Rape:
For a woman to be targeted for killing in the name of honor, her consent…or the lack of consent… in an action considered shameful is irrelevant to the guardians of honor.  Consequently a woman subjected to rape brings shame on her family just as she would when engaging in a consensual sexual relationship.   She is considered to have committed zina, fornication, which attracts severe punishments.] …it does not dishonor the rapist.
  

4.  Killings under The Pretext of Honor:
"Honor Killings was punishment for violating the honor codes but the tribes have subverted the custom of killing not for honor but to obtain the compensation that the tribal settlement awards to the aggrieved person. In honor killings if both the karo and Kari are killed, the matter ends; if only the kari is killed and the karo escapes…as is often the case… he has to compensate the affected man, for the damage to honor he inflicted, for the woman's worth who was killed and to have his own life spared.
 

This scheme provides easy opportunity for the unscrupulous to make money, obtain a woman in supposed compensation or to conceal other crimes, in the near certainty that honor killings, if they come to court at all, will be dealt with leniently.  

The lure of monetary gain appears to have motivated many men to accuse their mothers, wives or female relatives of dishonoring their families and killing them in order to extract compensation from the alleged karos who escape the killing.
  

Unable to repay loans, some men are known to have killed  a woman of their own family to implicate someone in the debtors family to ensure the loan would be extinguished in compensation.
 

The researcher reports that a new twist to seeking pecuniary benefit in honour killings is emerging among the Sabzoi tribe in Kandhkot District.  Here a kari is not killed, but returned to her family with the promise that she would be declared 'white' and acceptable if the family pays a heavy fine.
 

The researcher concludes that 'the honor killing industry' turns the honor upside down and indicates its degeneration.  Women have monetary worth in themselves in tribal society and can be exchanged for money, but to knowingly kill them on false charges of sexual activity for monetary purposes is equivalent to prostituting them.  "For in the honor system to use a woman to make money would be a dishonorable act".

5. Punitive Domestic Violence Against Women:
Honor killings are but an extreme form of violence against women which appears to be approved by wide sections of society of Pakistan and is ignored by the state.  Much of domestic violence in Pakistan is meted out to women in a habitual manner, arising from a male conviction that women deserve no other treatment.  However some violence is deliberate and punitive, intended to punish a woman for perceived insubordination which translates in to a un pardonable transgression of a family or tribal norm.
 

  6.  Women Trying To Escape Tribal 'Justice': 
Girls and women who apprehend being targeted for killing for alleged breach of customary norms of honor have great difficulties finding refuge.  Women are un-familiar with public transport, usually have no money and are highly visible, suspect and vulnerable to further abuse if they moved around alone.  The high proportion of Karis killed in comparison to karos able to escape, partly reflects this sheer inability of women to move in the public world.
  Moreover, there are few safe places for a woman to escape to.  Seeking help outside the family is fraught with danger for a woman.  Not only does society blame a woman for being targeted for murder-the popular perception being that she must somehow deserve it-but by seeking outside help she risks being sent back to her husband or father in whose custody she is perceived to belong.  Most important by seeking help outside, she adds shame to her husband and his family by making the issue public.  No Kari who escapes is ever forgiven, even if her innocence is recognized; some men are known to have traveled hundred's of miles to find and kill Karis, even years after the alleged misdeed.
  One of the few places where Kari is safe is in the home of a tribal sardar [tribal leader], a pir [holy man] or a religious shrine; in these places women are safe but expected to strictly abide by social roles, hence they are not a refuge for girls and women who assert to seek their rights.  While providing sanctuary, the shrine cannot give assistance in negotiating a deal; it is merely a place where a woman can rest till she returns to her family.
  Few women reach state-run or private shelters of which, as all women's rights activists in Pakistan agree, there are simply not enough to cope with the demand.  Those women who succeed in reaching a shelter show a high degree of social responsibility and awareness as they seek to pursue their rights through legal channels-but they may often not be aware that by approaching the state system, they virtually block their return to communities who they have shamed by this step.  Moreover, safety in a shelter may be elusive.
    Unable to escape forced marriages or violence, some women resort to suicide, driven to resort to the most extreme form of violence against them.  No official figure of women’s suicides exists and many women must be assumed to be simply buried to cover up the possible damage to the family's honor.  

Recommendations to the Government of Pakistan
As the Government of Pakistan to take urgent measures in the following three areas in fulfillment of its obligation to provide effective protection to women against violence perpetrated in the name of honor and to end the impunity currently enjoyed by its perpetrators.
1. Legal measures

• Undertake a review of criminal laws to ensure equal protection of law to women.

• Adopt legislation which makes domestic violence in all its manifestations a criminal offence.

• Make the sale of women and girls, the giving of women in marriage against financial consideration and as a form of compensation in lieu of a fine or imprisonment a criminal offence.

• Provide women victims of violence with access to the mechanisms of justice and to just and effective remedies for the harm they have suffered.

• Ensure that the provincial home departments and senior police staff take notice of all reports of honor killings and ensure that every single case is investigated and brought to prosecution.

• Abolish the death penalty and commute all death sentences.

2. Preventive measures

• Undertake wide-ranging public awareness programs through the media, the education system and public announcements to inform both men and women of women's equal rights.

• In particular, provide gender-sensitization training to law enforcement and judicial personnel to enable them to impartially address complaints of violence in the name of honor.

• Ensure that data and statistics are collected in a manner that makes the problem visible and awareness sessions, training workshops should be carried against the social evil through citizen participation in a better democratic governance system in Pakistan.

3. Protective measures

• Ensure that activists, lawyers and women's groups can pursue their legitimate activities without harassment or fear for their safety by providing adequate police protection and pursue all such threats with a view to punishment.

• Expand victim support services provided by the state or non-governmental organizations; they should be run as places of voluntary recourse for women and their purpose should be only protective; they should be available all over the country, adequately resourced, and linked to legal aid, vocational training and with adequate provisions for children.

REFERNCES

(1) Attiya Dawood, "Karo-kari: A question of honour, but whose honour?” in: Feminista, 2 (3/4), April 1999.
(2) See a recent Canadian decision: CRDD M97- 06821et al., Michnick, Arvanitakis, July 14, 1998.
(3) Dawn, 16 December 1998.
(4) Nafisa Shah: A story in black: Karo-kari killings in upper Sindh, Reuter Foundation Paper 100, Oxford, 1998, p. 56.
(5) The State of Human Rights in 1998, 1999, p.216 and p.10.
(6) Reuter, 10 March 1999.
(7) Simi Kamal, Asma Khan: A study of the interplay of formal and customary laws on women, vol.I, 1997, p.ii.
(8) Federation of Pakistan through Secr. Min. of Law vs. S. Gul Hassan Khan, PLD 1989 SC 633
(9) for a detailed discussion see: Women in Pakistan: Disadvantaged and denied their rights, AI Index: ASA 33/23/95.
(10) Hina Jilani, Human rights and democratic development in Pakistan, Lahore, 1998, p.143-144.
(11) Muhammad Younis vs. the State, 1989 Pcr LJ 1747.
(12) Mohammad Riaz and Mohammad Feroze vs. the State, Lahore High Court, 1998.
(13) E/CN.4/1996/53/Add.2

- Muhammad Haroon Bahlkani is District Officer SW, with Community Development Department in Sindh. His contact is bahlkani72649@yahoo.com