08/02/2007

Nearly 600 Women Killed in Pakistan 'Honour Killings' in 2006 

At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honour killings in 2006, the country’s main rights organisation said today, nearly double the number it recorded the year before.

The sharp increase from 287 in 2005 was due "at least in part" to expanded data collection, the privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report.

However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.

Many men in deeply conservative rural areas of Pakistan consider it an insult to family honour if female relatives have an affair outside of wedlock or even if they marry without their consent.

Some view attacking or killing the women or their partners as a way to restore family honour.  <A href="http://ad.ie.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh=v8/34f5/7/3f/%2a/b%3B74047524%3B0-0%3B0%3B15758899%3B4307-300/250%3B19957073/19974967/1%3B%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp%3A//adserver.adtech.de/adlink%7C257%7C1102089%7C0%7C170%7CAdId%3D1295407%3BBnId%3D1%3Bitime%3D142724669%3Bkey%3Dkey1%2Bkey2%2Bkey3%2Bkey4%3Blink%3Dhttp://www.ubdirectloans.ie/rugby/" target=_Blank></A>

In the report released today, the commission said at least 475 of last year’s honour killings followed accusations of “illicit relations".

Sixty of the dead were minors.

Arrests were made in only 128 cases, it said.

The treatment of women in Pakistan has been under scrutiny since the gang-rape of a woman in 2002 as punishment for her brother’s alleged affair with another woman attracted global media attention after she publicly spoke about her ordeal.

Mukhtar Mai has since become an icon for women rights.

Under pressure over her case, president gen Pervez Musharraf in December signed an amendment to an Islamic rape law to make it easier to prosecute sexual assaults.