WUNRN
Source: Reuters // Rebecca Conway - 10 August 2011
A girl looks through a metal partition, separating men and
women, at a mosque inside the Data Darbar Sufi shrine, after Friday prayers
during the month of Ramadan in
By Rebecca Conway
MULTAN, Pakistan, Aug 9,
(Reuters) - On April 14, two men entered Asma Firdous' home, cut off six of her
fingers, slashed her arms and lips and then sliced off her nose. Before leaving
the house, the men locked their 28-year-old victim inside.
Asma, from impoverished Kohaur
Junobi village in
Her fate is familiar in parts
of
At the hospital in nearby
"I don't know what will happen
to her when she leaves here," Asma's father, Ghulam Mustafa, said, in a
dilapidated ward heavy with the smell of antiseptic and blood, where other
women, doused with acid or kerosene by relatives or fellow villagers, awaiting
an equally uncertain future.
Asked if Asma will return to
her husband, her father remains silent.
In its 2010 report, the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan says almost 800 women were victims of
"honour killings" -- murders aimed at preserving the honour of male
relatives -- and 2,900 women reported raped -- almost eight a day.
The bulk, or almost 2,600, were
raped in Punjab alone,
And the numbers are rising:
media reports say crimes against women have risen 18 percent in the year to May
and the human rights commission believes its figures represent only a fraction
of the attacks which take place across the country.
Dr. Farzana Bari, director of
Gender Studies at
That mindset can often
influence the police and judiciary, which sometimes turn a blind eye to honour
killings or rapes carried out to "punish" women.
"I think honour killings
are a symptom of vigilante justice," she said. "And vigilante justice
occurs in an environment where the state is unable to enforce its writ."
TRIBAL JUSTICE
In rural areas, women are often
shut out of the justice system, which is compromised by powerful landowners and
feudal lords who dominate a hierarchy that makes it difficult -- and deadly --
for those with little education or social standing to speak out.
Families or tribes then often
take justice in their own hands, presiding over "jirgas" or
"panchayats" -- gatherings of elders that hand down punishments that
include rape, killing or barter of women for crimes that include falling in
love with a man deemed inappropriate or besmirching family honour.
Some women are maimed just to
settle scores.
Members of the panchayat
systems say the tradition is hard to shake because it is entrenched in the
local culture and also because it is much more efficient than the regular
courts.
"In the settled areas
there are courts but people can't always get justice or compensation,"
said lawyer and tribal elder Karim Masoud, who presides over both panchayat
settlements and the mainstream court system.
"With the jirgas, they can
get compensation, and it takes less time to settle a dispute. It's fairer and
people don't have to use bribes to get justice."
Zarmuhamad Afridi, who also
attends jirga rulings in Pakistan's northern tribal belt and works within the
mainstream court system, said the jirga system survives because in many parts
of Pakistan, a man's honour is intrinsically linked to how his wife or daughter
behave.
"If a couple is not
married and they are having a relationship, a jirga may rule that the woman
should be shot," Afridi said. "That is okay for many, because they
have to protect family honour."
The slightest transgression by
a woman -- being seen talking to a man on the street, perhaps, or having an
unknown phone number in a mobile -- can bring harsh punishment and social
ostracism of the family, he says, making the quick, harsh judgment of the
panchayats popular.
"Women are cherished
here," he said. "Men protect them. If a woman is out of her house
then what is she doing? That is what people think here."
Many women are unable to speak
out because they lack the support and education to understand their rights,
activists say.
But even those who dare often
get nowhere.
The most high profile instance
of a violent ruling by a tribal court against a woman is that of the gang rape
of Mukhtaran Mai, which took place near
Mai was allegedly attacked to
settle a matter of village honor, as decided by a panchayat. She was then
paraded naked through her village.
Unlike most rape victims, who
face stark recriminations for speaking out, and who are sometimes even expected
to commit suicide, she filed a criminal case against 14 men.
Six men were convicted and
sentenced to death that year, but in 2005 the Lahore High Court commuted one
sentence to life in prison and acquitted the rest.
The men were released days
later. Mai said she is afraid they will return and kill her.