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In a country like ours, where we come across so many cases of honor killing, I was compelled to
write these stories.

Case 1: Bano earns her living from washing clothes and dishes at different people¶s homes. Her
husband is a cook at a hotel. The couple has four daughters and one son. One day, she came to
my mother and said, ³R
   
        
     
.´ My mother
congratulated her. Though, the girl was hardly twelve years old while the boy was eighteen.
Bano continued her routine work even after the engagement. She started inviting boy (her
daughter¶s fiancé) to her house and the couple stated having open meetings. Bano wanted them
to develop a good mutual understanding, so she didn¶t object on that. The boy started paying
frequent visits to their house, while Bano and her husband were busy at work and out of house.

Bano was very happy and started collecting money and dowry for her daughter¶s marriage. One
day she came and told my mother. My mother gave her some money and granted her leave. The
Nikah ceremony was performed nicely and Rukhsati was due only after two months. One day,
Bano came and asked for a day leave since she was going to attend a family function. She didn¶t
come for four days. She came on the fifth day with lost looks and swollen eyes.

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Her husband came in the evening to us and was infuriated.

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My mother never wanted to interfere in their personal matters. First of all, she was against of
their marriage at a young age. The girl was too young. Secondly, if they had allowed them to
meet freely at home, they should have educated them on what their limits were. But as one states,
the lower class has little time to teach and educate their kids. Thirdly, she was against filing of
weak case since the daughter had ³romantic´ ideas and was inspired from films in which hero
and heroine plan and run away from their homes. She ran intentionally, not forcibly.

Bano told us that she was able to talk with her daughter only once. She replied,

´#   

  
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  .´

Upon asking her younger siblings, they replied,

³R
 
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The siblings were even too young to know what ³ 

´ meant. This boy was a
milkman¶s son. She did not contact her parents for three months and had a wonderful time at
Murree. They were really in deep torture and agony. After three months of enjoyment, the girl
finally came back to her parents stating,

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' 


 
 ´.

The girl was two months pregnant. The issue had become more complex. She didn¶t want to go
back to her husband. In her views, marriage was all about having fun, watching movies and
having a nice relationship. She didn¶t want to take any matrimonial responsibility. She even
didn¶t want to have that kid. She even forced her parents to have her abortion. Whatever she saw
in the films and dramas, she tried to follow that. (Bano used to take her kids to cinema once a
week). What else one could expect from a totally illiterate and a twelve-year girl, who knew
nothing about responsibilities and reputation? The only thing which surprised me was that people
from this class kill their daughters over performing such acts. But her parents supported. She is
happily divorced now and living with her parents. Her Rukhsati was awaited. She could have left
the home decently and nicely too, instead of becoming a ³  ´.

Case 2: Another case is of an educated lady doing her bachelors and belonging to a rich family.
The only issue with her is being ordinary looking and not attracting people who came to her
house to see her. She was rejected many times. One day, a family (mother and son) came to see
her through a reference person. They didn¶t tell the reference that they were Hindus. They liked
the girl. Upon knowing their religion, the girls¶ refused to give them his daughter. The girl wrote
a letter to the boy and 

 
with him. The letter was caught by a family relative.
Upon knowing her intentions, parents asked boy to change his religion and got both of them
married. The boy changed his religion to Islam. They are married now with four children.

Case 3: Another lady, who was doing her bachelors and belonged to very rich family, did the
same. She eloped and got married to a sales boy in her father¶s shop. She was very ordinary
looking and no one ever asked for her proposal. Her family is still in deep shock. She came back
to her parents, gave birth to a daughter. Later got divorced from the boy, married another boy
and now lives abroad. The second husband doesn¶t want to keep her daughter, so her daughter
lives with her grandparents now. The girl is having a great time. Her younger sisters didn¶t get
any proposals, after this eloping case. People never asked for them after knowing this.

Case 4: This one is of a lower middle class family, where a thirteen year old daughter was given
a lot of independence. She would go out to her friends¶ homes and come late. One day, she
didn¶t return. Upon asking a friend of hers, she told that she had started liking a boy in her
Mohallah and   with him. She got married at a friend¶s home too. This she all shared after
coming back after marriage with some month pregnancy.

There is another woman who has never married and given birth to two children. She is even
living freely. She works at a parlor.

Now in a country like Pakistan, where we hear so much about ³


 ´, these are some
cases where parents didn¶t perform any. All these four women are alive now. It was very hard for
me to point out the exact reason for eloping. First of all, it¶s the inability to control emotions.
Mostly girls elope where they are sick of arranged marriages, or not marrying the men of their
choice. Fear of getting rejected again and again by people and when someone makes a ³yes´ to
them, they elope. It happens due to lack of proper ethical training from parents, especially from
mothers. They must keep a check on their children. With the current technology of mobile
phones and television available, planning for eloping is easier than ever, and that is why there
usage should be watched out by the parents and guardians, especially mothers. Thanks to films,
that project ³ ´ as a very romantic and recreational thing, and easily attack young minds.
All these four cases are different from each other: Two ladies are from rich and educated
families, two are lower class girls. No one can suggest an ³

 ´ for these women, but
one little punishment for such women. The girls in case 1 and 4 pressurized parents to have their
abortions. Killing a life!! The punishment should be in the form of no support from parents on
their coming back home and asking for abortions. If they eloped, enjoyed and had fun, why
coming back to parents after some months then? There isn¶t any case of honor killing reported,
but something must be done in order to educate young minds. The act of ³
 ´ serves as a
social taboo. It doesn¶t only leave a deep negative impact on the girl and her family, but to other
siblings too. Firstly, the younger siblings may think that it is something good to perform. Our
elder sister did this, so can we? Secondly, people point out other girls of the same family as
eloper¶s sisters and may find a good justification to reject them.