Pakistan: Our Friend and Ally, Part 2

Rape as Punishment


Washington Post
By Mona Eltahawy
Editorial
Pg B07
July 28, 2002



A Pakistan tribal council's horrific "punishment" by gang rape of a young woman last month was just the tip of a very ugly iceberg called honor.

In the name of that most elusive of concepts, women are shot, beheaded, burned, stoned and beaten. And, in the case of Saleema, raped.

Four men raped Saleema (not her real name) for more than an hour to ruin her honor and avenge that of another woman. (Saleema's 12-year-old brother had been in the company of a woman from a more powerful tribal family, apparently not by his own choice, and been summarily accused of having an affair with her). Hence the tribal council's "verdict" on his sister.

The Pakistan Human Rights Commission estimates that at least eight women, five of them minors, are reported raped every day; more than two-thirds of them are gang-raped.

In Pakistan rape is often used for revenge or punishment against an enemy. A woman is "defiled" to taint her family. What irony that a woman as powerless as Saleema carries the whole family's honor on her shoulders -- a heavy burden indeed.

It is one that is carried by women in countless Muslim countries, yet there is not a single word in the Koran that calls for death in the name of honor. Virginity before marriage and chastity afterward are the bulwarks of honor in societies where such killings prevail.

The mere suspicion that she has jeopardized that honor -- talking to a neighbor, being seen with a strange man, or even asking for a divorce -- can earn a woman a death sentence.

Some conservative Muslim clerics shamefully support honor killings. They accuse activists who fight to eradicate such crimes, often at risk of their own lives, of seeking to impose Western values upon their traditional societies.

What is so Western about wanting to end a barbaric cultural practice that leaves a woman damned if she does and damned if she doesn't?

In Yemen a few years ago, a man shot his daughter dead on her wedding night after her husband claimed she was not a virgin. At the mother's insistence, a doctor examined the young woman's body and found her to have been a virgin. Her husband was impotent and lied to protect his honor because he knew he would not be able to display a bloodied rag as proof of his bride's virginity.

According to UNICEF and Amnesty International statistics, more than 1,000 women were victims of honor killings in Pakistan in 1999. There were up to 400 honor killings in Yemen in 1997. The United Nations says such killings have also occurred in Britain, Norway, Italy, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela. At least one case has been reported in the United States.

One particularly gruesome killing had us dumbfounded as word of what happened came into the Cairo newsroom where I was working at the time. A young woman named Nora Ahmed had eloped. Her father had not approved of her choice of husband. When she returned to Cairo to try to change her father's mind he asked to speak with her privately. He then cut off her head and paraded it down a Cairo street, shouting "Now my family has regained its honor."

In 1997 some 52 honor killings were reported in Egypt. The actual figures in all of the countries I've cited are probably much higher because most honor killings go unreported.

What to do if clerics remain perversely silent about an ancient practice that is rooted in culture rather than religion? What to do when men who kill female relatives in the name of honor too often escape punishment or receive atrociously short sentences?

We must acknowledge the brave few who speak out. A village imam courageously condemned Saleema's rape in a Friday sermon, drawing journalists' attention.

A particularly useful weapon is embarrassment. In Saleema's case, local and international outcries led Pakistani authorities to arrest and charge all four suspected rapists. Several other people -- including a police officer -- are also in custody for allegedly failing to prevent the attack or hiding the suspects.

Two of the most courageous activists fighting honor killings are sisters Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani. They are both lawyers and human rights activists who tirelessly champion women's rights despite death threats and a largely unsympathetic government.

Let's embarrass that government into prosecuting more of those who kill in the name of honor. Let's shame it into doing the honorable thing.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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