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'She Will Never Shame Me Again': Honor Killing Epidemic in Pakistan

CBN

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The rate and brutality of honor killings in Pakistan has increased sharply. 

Last year, 1,096 women and 88 men were killed in Pakistan, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In 2014, the number was 1,005 women, including 82 children, up from 869 women a year earlier. But authorities believe the real number of honor killings is much higher because many go unreported. 

Eighteen-year-old Zeenkat was one of those victims. 

"I have killed my daughter. I have saved my honor. She will never shame me again," screamed her mother Parveen Rafiq. 

Zeenkats mother choked her to the point of unconsciousness, then burned her alive after drenching her in kerosene. Zeenkat's crime was that she refused an arranged marraige and married a childhood friend whom she loved instead. 

Unfortunately, those who murder for "honor" are usually never punished because Shariah law allows the family of a victim to forgive a killer. But often times the victim's murderer is their own family member. 

Some human rights groups believe the rise in frequency and brutality of the killings is a symptom of an older generation fighting cultural change. 

More Pakistani women are refusing the age-old tradition of arranged marriage. Instead they are focusing more on education than marriage or children -- a dangerous idea that could end in their own brutal murder. 

The Pakistani government has done little to curb the violence and only implements "protective" measures that align with Islamic law. For example, the government proposed an alternative action to honor killings that allows men to "lightly beat" their wives. 

Young people replied to the government's proposal by launching a Twitter campaign with the mocking hashtag #TryBeatingMeLightly. On TV talk shows, guests denounced the council as misogynist and out of touch. Some lawmakers called for it to be disbanded.

But despite the public outcry, those who go against tradition, especially women, run the risk of losing their lives.
 

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