Nothing Wrong With Their Religion Or Government!!!!

A member of the country’s national parliament, senator Israr Ullah Zehri, to defend it, telling colleagues that “these are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them”, The Weekend Australianreports. What the hell am I writing about you say?  How about this sick barbaric shit! DESPAIR among human rights workers in Pakistan over a rash of so-called “honour killings” intensified yesterday when it was disclosed that a girl forced into marriage with a 45-year-old man at the age of nine had been killed by her parents because she asked for an annulment.  Yet people say they are CIVILIZED!

 The girl, 17, who had been fighting a lonely but successful legal battle, was coming out of court in the Punjabi city of Sahiwal after being granted the annulment by a judge when she was surrounded by a group of men and shot in view of police.  So I guess the judge ok’d it but the Muslim beliefs of the police didn’t?  Are these police going to be hung in public view?  Probably not….

The death of Saira Nusrat Bibi has added further to concerns among human rights campaigners already outraged over the case of five women – among them three teenage schoolgirls – buried alive in the province of Baluchistan because they wanted to marry men of their choice in defiance of the wishes of tribal leaders. Oh this country is out of control and the woman are treated like animals!

  It gets worse….. read about this barbaric, ancient and uncivilized society .MY BLOOD IS BOILING! http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24302102-401,00.html

  Then you say “What is Honour killing”? Your probably saying its not the Muslim belief its certain parts of Pakistan.  Let’s look at it:

• An honor killing or honour killing is generally the murder of a family or clan member, most often females, when they (and maybe the wider community) believe the person to have brought dishonor upon them. A woman can be targeted commonly for: refusing an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or allegedly committing adultery or fornication. These killings result from the perception that defense of family honour justifies killing a woman whose behavior dishonours her family.

Sharif Kanaana, professor of anthropology at Birzeit University states that honor killing is:

A complicated issue that cuts deep into the history of Arab society. .. What the men of the family, clan, or tribe seek control of in a patrilineal society is reproductive power. Women for the tribe were considered a factory for making men. The honor killing is not a means to control sexual power or behavior. What’s behind it is the issue of fertility, or reproductive power.

An Amnesty International statement adds:

The regime of honor is unforgiving: women on whom suspicion has fallen are not given an opportunity to defend themselves, and family members have no socially acceptable alternative but to remove the stain on their honor by attacking the woman.

Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist

The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.

A July 2008 Turkish study by a team from Dicle University on honor killings in the Southeastern Anatolia Region has so far shown that little if any social stigma is attached to the act

The killing of an adulterous wife by an enraged husband or the killing of a male by the family of (a supposedly dishonoured) female is, or was, common and often condoned in many cultures (e.g. manslaughter). Such a cultural attitude was often reflected in a reduced sentence for such a murder by the judicial system. Honour killings of female family members is not tied to religion; it occurs among some rural Muslim communities with a strongly feudal tribal culture, Druze and Christian tribes in some Arab countries and Pakistan, as well as among other South Asian communities, including Hindu and Sikh adherents in India, the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.  The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the annual worldwide total of honor-killing victims may be as high as 5,000 women.

  Most Islamic religious authorities prohibit extra-legal punishments such as honor killings, since they consider the practice to be a cultural issue, although recognising that adultery by a married person is one of the three permitted grounds for a Muslim’s life to be taken.  According to Amnesty International, in Iraq, honor killings are also conducted by armed groups, and not the government, upon politically active women and those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women who are perceived as human rights defenders.

  SO CHECK OUT THE LAWS OR LEGAL CODES IN ISLAMIC AND NON ISLAMIC COUNTRIES:

• According to the report of the Special Rapporteur submitted to the 58th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (2002) concerning cultural practices in the family that reflect violence against women (E/CN.4/2002/83):

  The Special Rapporteur indicated that there had been contradictory decisions with regard to the honor defense in Brazil, and that legislative provisions allowing for partial or complete defense in that context could be found in the penal codes of Argentina, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Peru, Syria, Venezuela and the Palestinian National Authority.

  The Israeli government denies that its law allows for “family honor” as a defense in murder, partially or completely.

  Countries where the law is interpreted to allow men to kill female relatives in a premeditated effort as well as for crimes of passions, in flagrante delicto in the act of committing adultery, include:

  • Jordan: Part of article 340 of the Penal Code states that “he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one of them, is exempted from any penalty.” This has twice been put forward for cancellation by the government, but was retained by the Lower House of the Parliament, in 2003: a year in which at least seven honor killings took place.

  Countries that allow men to kill female relatives in flagrante delicto (but without premeditation) include:

  • Syria: Article 548 states that “He who catches his wife or one of his ascendants, descendants or sister committing adultery (flagrante delicto) or illegitimate sexual acts with another and he killed or injured one or both of them benefits from an exemption of penalty.”

  Countries that allow husbands to kill only their wives in flagrante delicto (based upon the Napoleonic code) include:

  • Morocc: Article 418 of the Penal Code states “Murder, injury and beating are excusable if they are committed by a husband on his wife as well as the accomplice at the moment in which he surprises them in the act of adultery.”
  • Haiti: Article 269 of the Penal Code states that “in the case of adultery as provided for in Article 284, the murder by a husband of his wife and/or her partner, immediately upon discovering them in flagrante delicto in the conjugal abode, is to be pardoned.”
  • In two Latin American countries, similar laws were struck down over the past two decades: according to human rights lawyer Julie Mertus “in Brazil, until 1991 wife killings were considered to be noncriminal ‘honor killings’; in just one year, nearly eight hundred husbands killed their wives. Similarly, in Colombia, until 1980, a husband legally could kill his wife for committing adultery.”

  Countries where honor killing is not legal but is known to occur include:

  • Turkey: In Turkey, persons found guilty of this crime are sentenced to life in prison.
  • Iraqi Kurdistan: In Kurdistan, women are killed nearly every day for ‘dishonoring’ their families. Honor killing was legal until 2002 in Iraq.
  • Pakistan: Honor killings are known as Karo Kari (Sindhi: ???? ????) (Urdu: ???????? ). The practice is supposed to be prosecuted under ordinary murder, but in practice police and prosecutors often ignore it Often a man must simply claim the killing was for his honor and he will go free. Nilofar Bakhtiar, advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, stated that in 2003, as many as 1,261 women were murdered in honor killings. On December 8, 2004, under international and domestic pressure, Pakistan enacted a law that made honor killings punishable by a prison term of seven years, or by the death penalty in the most extreme cases. Women’s rights organizations were, however, wary of this law as it stops short of outlawing the practice of allowing killers to buy their freedom by paying compensation to the victim’s relatives. Women’s rights groups claimed that in most cases it is the victim’s immediate relatives who are the killers, so inherently the new law is just eyewash. It did not alter the provisions whereby the accused could negotiate pardon with the victim’s family under the so-called Islamic provisions. In March 2005 the Pakistani government allied with Islamists to reject a bill which sought to strengthen the law against the practice of “honor killing”. However, the bill was brought up again, and in November 2006, it passed. It is doubtful whether or not the law would actually help women.
  • Egypt: A number of studies on honor crimes by The Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, includes one which reports on Egypt’s legal system, noting a gender bias in favor of men in general, and notably article 17 of the Penal Code : judicial discretion to allow reduced punishment in certain circumstance, often used in honor killings case.