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Priscilla Ramirez
Professor Bieber
English 113B
10 February 2015
Murder Victims of Pakistan
Every year women are killed in Pakistan for marrying a man they love,
disobeying the tradition of an arranged marriage and etc. Many women have been
subjected to violence such as rape, incest, burning by fire or acid, battering and honor
killings. In Pakistan honor killings have been going on unnoticed and women fail to have
their voices heard. Many people are not aware that honor killings are still taking place in
Pakistan; therefore, informing people all around the world about the occurrences will
help bring awareness to this issue and pressure countries like Pakistan to take action.
Such pressure will benefit Pakistani women, who suffer under traditions passed down
from generations to no longer have to endure them.
Honor Killings are known to take place in Pakistan and the threat of honor
killings victimize women. Thus In the name of preserving family honor, women and
girls are shot, stoned, burned alive, strangled, smothered and knifed to death with
horrifying regularity (Kiener 183). Between 5,000 and 20,000 so called honor killings
are based on long-held beliefs that any female who commits or is suspected of
committing an immoral act should be killed to restore honor to her family (Kiener
183). Examples of an immoral act are seen as taking a double look at a male, committing
adultery, marrying a man out of an arranged marriage and etc. Male relatives such as a
father, brother, uncle and cousin are the sole perpetrators of honor killings. Many

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Pakistani women live in a male dominated society and are treated as male property not as
human beings with equal rights. Although some women are in fact educated and the IRC
has supported women by allowing 563 women to be staff and their schools are being
outnumbered by girls 4,804 to 3,520.
Honor Killings have claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Pakistani women
every year (McCoy) and according to the HRCP, there have been 869 cases reported in
Pakistan last year. Honor Killing is a form of torturing someone to death. It is one of the
most brutal forms of violence perpetrated against women in order to control and punish
their sexuality and basic freedoms, said a spokesman for Women Living Under Muslim
Laws. There are 83 percent of Pakistanis who support stonings for adultery according to
a Pew Survey, and only 8 percent oppose it(McCoy). In the article Is Equality Under
Threat in Some Arab Countries? Glazer discusses a story of a young girl named Reem
who was married off to her cousin at the age of 11 and who later tried to commit suicide.
Reem stated that she ran away to get help from her mother to get a divorce and the judges
told her We dont divorce little girls, and Reem responded with But how come you
allow little girls to get married?(Glazer 155). This is an example of what contributes to
the act of honor killing, because women and girls are treated as objects with out rights
(Kiener 187). It is also an example of a factor of Government Issue allowing young girls
to get married who would later be killed due to honor killing.
Although many honor killings are never reported women have not been the only
ones who get victimized but also men. Pakistani women are not speaking out because in
their culture the tradition of honor killing is seen as the norm. During the year 2010, 960
honor killings were reported in Pakistan. In the article Can Murders of Women and Girls

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be Stopped? Rana Husseini a journalist stated, Many honor killings are passed off as
suicides, accidents and disappearances (Kiener 187) and found that one in five
homicides is an honor killing (Kiener, 187). The men that are victims of honor killing
are because they have become spouses of women who married out of an arranged
marriage, You have mixed our honor with dirt(Kiener, 187) or because they have
committed adultery.
In 2002 womens political participation in Pakistan made a legislative formulation
which was expanded and formed laws that would affect womens status positively in the
country, either through amending the old discriminatory laws or introducing new laws to
protect women from traditional, cultural, and legal violence (Syed, Tabassum and Afzal
100). The men in Pakistan are said to have created, interpreted, applied, and enforced
the law to maintain their own advantaged position in the economic hierarchy as they saw
their women weak and the non-bread winners. Laws were introduced to protect women
from victimization and positively affect their status in the country (Syed, Tabassum and
Afzal 110). These acts consisted of first the criminal law amendment Act 2004 to curb
Honour Killing, second the protection of women act 2006 to amend the Hudood
Ordinances, third the criminal law amendments act 2010 to curb Sexual Harassment,
fourth the protection of women against harassment at workplace act 2010, fifth the
criminal law amendment act 2011 to curb anti-women social practices, sixth the criminal
law amendment act 2011 to curb disfigurement of the human body and lastly seventh the
domestic violence (prevention and protection) act 2012. (Syed, Tabassum and Afzal, 110111).

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There is no justification for honor killings under any circumstance. Husseni
explains that honor killings have been the norm since ancient civilization. Husseni states
that women have become more educated and more independent. Husseni informs that
religion has nothing to do with honor killings and that we are never informed about the
religion of a murderer if he/she is Christian, Jewish, atheist, etc.(Kiener, 201). Chesler
informs, honor killing is a conspiracy carried out by the victims family, which views the
killing as heroic(Kiener, 201). This mentality can be changed possibly through showing
all the deaths that have taken place in order for the Pakistani community can realize they
are killing off there women for no good reason.
Women have formed movements standing up against honor killings and striking
for womens equal rights. There have been patterns of womens representation in formal
political forums( Syed, Tabassum and Afzal, 101) to include law-making improvements
towards womens right. Some victims have begun to fight back. Multiple solutions to
help Pakistani women can include foundations, safe houses, governing the police by
strictly enforcing laws that will punish them with a life sentence in prison. Pakistani
women should break from traditions and show other women that they have a choice and
do not have to undergo these honor killings because they live in a new generation and
should start changing the ways they see things.
As stated honor killings is traced back to Pakistani women who are forced to
become wives of men they do not love. It is important to acknowledge the fact that these
women live in fear all their life. Honor killings bring terror and horror to the lives of
these young women who are the victims daily. The killings have made women realize that
they deserve to be treated better with equal rights as men. Pakistani women are indeed in

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need of help to stop the killings and need to arrange a protected program where women
and girls are protected from men who are trying to kill them because of a crime they are
suspected to have committed.

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Works Cited
Kiener, Robert. Can Murders of Women and Girls be Stopped?. 19 April. 2011. Volume
5, Issue 8. 183-208.
Glazer, Sarah. Is equality under threat in some Arab countries?. 3 April. 2012. Volume 6,
Issue 7. 153-180.
Syed, N. T., Tabassum, H., & Afzal, T. (2013). WOMEN'S POLITICAL
PARTICIPATION AND THE LAWS TO PROTECT WOMEN IN PAKISTAN.
Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies = Alam-e-Niswan = Alam-i Nisvan, 20(2),
99-115.
McCoy, Terrance. In Pakistan 1,000 Women die in Honor Killings annually. Why is
this happening? .The Washington Post. 28 May. 2014