Another Honour Killing in Pakistan
GHRTV Reporter
Emma Barnhoorn
Pakistan Human Rights Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
In Mardan, Pakistan, another honour killing has occurred.
A man has shot dead his wife and aunt in the Sreikh village of Dubai Adda on Sunday, November 14. According to the Chora police station officials, the man suspected that his wife, age 26, and his aunt, age 35, had illicit relations with another person. For honour, the accused killed them both. He subsequently fled the scene. The police has now registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the alleged killed after his brother-in-law brought the complaint to the police (Dawn, 2021).
An honour killing is the most extreme form of honour-based violence, a phenomenon in which a person is subjected to violence by his or her collective family or community to restore the so-called ‘honour’, which was presumed to be lost by that person’s behavior, mostly through expressions of sexual autonomy. The supposed ‘offender of the family’s honour’ is killed for the honour to be restored. In Pakistan, around 1,000 honour killings take place every year (Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, 2021).
Sources and further reading:
Dawn (2021, November 15) “Man kills wife, aunt for honour in Mardan” https://www.dawn.com/news/1658140.
Honour Based Violence Awareness Network (2021) FAQ http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/#eleven.
