AWP flays murder of girl

LAHORE

Awami Workers Party, Lahore chapter, has condemned the murder of a teenage girl, Zeenat, in Chungi Amar Sadhu. AWP leaders have demanded the government for forming and implementing stricter laws that punish those who perpetrate honour-based violence.

According to a press release issued here Friday, the AWP leaders said patriarchal violence in the family takes its roots from the belief that it is acceptable for a more powerful individual to control others through various forms of coercive force. Honour-based violence is part of this continuum of violence against women.

Honour-based crimes are motivated by a desire to preserve family or community honour and treat women as a vessel of the family reputation. A woman’s family and/or community decide if these codes of honour were breached and seal her fate with the stamp of violence, they added. In just a span of a few months three major cases of honour crime, including the case in Lahore have occurred. Last week, 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured and burnt by a group of people in a village close to the holiday resort of Murree, for refusing a marriage proposal from the son of a former colleague.Not too long ago, another woman believed to be aged between 16 and 18 was drugged, strangled and her body burnt on the orders of a village jirga (council). AWP demanded the government end its silence towards violence experienced by women. Ending violence in the home, no matter who the perpetrator is, needs to be the essential agenda, they concluded.