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| Advocate Veerji Kolhi Convenor Human Rights Commission of Pakistan President Progressive Hindu Allliance |
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| A Young Pregnant Girl is Viciously Murdered in an Honor Killing Lahore, Pakistan Photo Courtesy of Advocate Veerji Kolhi |
Lahore 'honor killing': Farzana Parveen was pregnant when she was stoned to death for marrying man she loved ...
Wednesday 28 May 2 014
The husband of a pregnant woman who was stoned to death by her family outside of Lahore's High Court has said she was killed Because the couple had married for love.
Police official Naseem Butt said 20 members of Farzana Parveen's family attacked her and her husband with sticks and bricks in broad daylight on Tuesday before a crowd of onlookers.
As the couple walked up to the main gate, the relatives fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from Ms Parveen, her lawyer said. When she resisted, her father, brothers and other relatives Started beating her, pelting her eventually with bricks from a nearby construction site.
Ms Parveen, who was understood to be three months pregnant, died from severe head injuries. Her husband escaped, The Times of India has reported.
Mr Butt said the 25-year-old Mohammad Iqbal had married the while she was engaged to her cousin. She had been waiting for the High Court in the eastern city of Lahore to open when the attack took place.
"We were in love," Mr Iqbal Told the Associated Press. He said he had formed a relationship with her after the death of his first wife.
Her lawyer, Mustafa Kharal, said her father had filed an abduction case against her husband, which the couple was contesting.
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Woman stoned to death by her family 'for marrying a man she loved "I simply Took her to court and registered a marriage," infuriating the family, Mr Iqbal explained. Her father surrendered after the incident and the murder Called an "honor killing", Mr Butt said. "I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it," the father was quoted as saying by police. The incident has shocked Pakistan, with Zia Awan, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist, describing it as "shameful". "I have not heard of any caliber of such a case in which a woman was stoned to death, and the most shameful and worrisome thing is that this woman was killed outside a courthouse." The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a private group, said in a report last month that some 869 women were murdered in honor killings in 2013. The real number may be far higher, as in many cases the family will not step forward and protect the victim.
Forced marriages will always end in tragedy such as this. In a Muslim country where honor killing is considered a perfectly justifiable solution to this problem, the woman victim stands no chance. The police will do nothing and her parents will encourage that form of Islamic justice for the crime of being in love and choosing her marriage partner rather than having that choice made for her. In a Patriarchal society women have no voice and they have no rights. Both the man and the woman will pay the consequences for the desire to go against the societal rules and choose to marry the person they love with mutual consent to do so. This is a tragic injustice and must be stopped! The number of honor killings in Pakistan are at an extremely high number and the threat is very real. IUFE thanks those who are working to bring about changes in a system that would seek the death penalty rather than simply allow a young couple in love to live a happy and enduring life together.
Advocate Veerji Kolhi
Convenor
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
President
Progressive Hindu Alliance
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