Man Kills His Wife and Two Daughters, Allegedly for Honour, in Pakistan

Emma Barnhoorn

Pakistan Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

According to the police, a man has shot dead his wife and two daughters, allegedly in the name of honour, in Razaar tehsil on Sunday October 17.

Police officials stated that the son of the suspect made a complaint to the police that his mother and sister were sitting inside the house when his father and son-in-law entered and started a firing. His mother and sister died on the spot.

According to the complainant, his father was annoyed with his wife and one of the sisters, who had allegedly abducted a newborn baby boy from the Mardam Medical Complex. The baby boy was later recovered by the police, but the mother and daughter had to stay in jail for 35 days and were released only a week ago. The father and his son-in-law were most likely ashamed with the behaviour of their spouses and killed them for honour.

The bodies of the three women were shifted to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Razaar for autopsy. The police has now registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the father and his son-in-law (Dawn, 2021). 

Honour killings are the most extreme form of honour-based violence, a practice in which a person is subjected to violence by his or her family or community. These acts of violence have the intention of restoring the so-called “honour” that was presumed to be lost by the victim’s behaviour, mostly through expressions of sexual autonomy. In this way, the supposed “offender of the family’s honour” is killed for the honour to be restored (Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, 2021).

Sources and further reading:

Dawn (2021, October 18) “Swabi man kills wife, two daughters” https://www.dawn.com/news/1652701/swabi-man-kills-wife-two-daughters.

Honour Based Violence Awareness Network (2021) FAQ http://hbv-awareness.com/faq/#eleven.