Even in this age, when we were used to seeing such horrors on social media, there was the recent case when in broad daylight in Balochistan, a woman along with her husband is gunned down in cold blood by her own family. The video in which the killing could be seen spread and caused horror and heartbreak. However, what is worst is the way some media houses have tried to diffuse the seriousness of the crime, instead they have tried to drift the case to the side tracks, the coverage of whether the couple got involved in a love marriage or whether their union was acceptable to the tribal traditions. These are mere distractions and a detrimental hopeless way of evading the point of the matter that, there is no written law, no religion and no human sense of morality that states that anybody has the power to kill people in the street in the name of honour.
No One Has the Right to Take a Life
No matter the way the couple proceeds, whether it is being a love marriage, eloping, or does not according to family customs, to take law into own hand, is simply the crime. The existence of laws in society cannot allow the existence of vigilante justice. Worse still, the fact that this act of murder was perpetrated in such an open and shameful manner is a very disturbing aspect of the matter and the debate is around reasons and justifications rather than justice and accountability.
This is not just a tragedy of a wrong love marriage in the perception of some people, but this is a pure case of murder. The judiciary is the only body that is supposed to punish any form of crime, whether it was done or supposedly invented in civilized societies. There can never be a group, a family or a tribe having the mandate to become a prosecutor, a judge and an executioner.
Modern-Day Infanticide
This killing of girls in the current world is no longer necessarily by bullets or knives. Thousands of daughters die slowly being abused, neglected, emotionally manipulated and treated with cruelty by the society. At home they are tortured by being threatened with divorce, swearing words and no relationship. In other ghastly scenarios, baby girls once born are dumped in garbage piles like they are worthless to this world.
Not that this hate epidemic against daughters is limited to the tribal belts or illiterate societies. It saturates us in our larger social landscape. The increasing preference of boy child, the dowry system, the non-desirability of educating and giving autonomy to girls, all of these are a result of gender-based violence.
Honor Killing Is a National Crisis
In 2024, 392 women were killed due to honour according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. It is horrifying how they are distributed, and they are 168 in Punjab, 151 in Sindh, 52 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 in Balochistan, and 2 in Islamabad. And these are the reported figures: there are thousand-fold more who are unplan spoken, behind the ramparts of silence and concurrence.
Such statistics are grim. It is not only women who get murdered when they are married out of choice, but also when they dance at weddings, or are possessors of mobile phones, or even when they talk freely. That epidemic of honour kills is not an epitome of honour, but it is an expression of patriarchy, ignorance and insecurity.
The same report also disclosed that, 1,969 rape cases were registered, 29 cases of domestic violence, 30 women were burnt and killed, 43 were acid-attacked, and 980 killed in other unrelated cases of violence against women. The figures can be more than figures. This is destruction of lives of peoples, destruction of families, future.
The Importance of Education and Awareness
The answer is through education. The schools should institute a curriculum that talks about the issue of gender-based violence and human rights. Children must learn to honour all human beings without gender differences. Boys should not be socialized at a young age to think that a strong person is one who dominates others, but one who equally understands and treats others.
Parents need to train sons how to live equal with their sisters and mothers. Media ought to magnify the tales of empowered women, combat the negative stereotypes, and offer the voiceless their voice.
The Time for Silence is Over
The incident of Balochistan is not isolated. It is a popular and decayed-thinking attitude that demeans women. Yet it also can be taken as a point of turnaround. It should be an eye opener to us as people, as a society and as a nation. With a united voice we have to say enough is enough. Bullets cannot be used anymore as a grave to bury any more daughters, and silence has no place to cover dead daughters.
Justice must be made; not only on behalf of the murdered couple in Balochistan, but on behalf of every woman who has been victimized under pretext of honour. Till now we are still partakers of the biggest and the most dishonourable act.
