Last week, I wrote about the ‘tyranny of medieval practices’ in Pakistan, with specific reference to the killing of a woman and a man in a desolate region of Balochistan in the name of ‘honour’. So, why should I continue with this theme this week, when so much else is in a state of disarray, all around us?
Well, I am very disturbed by a number of new cases of honour killings this week. It seems that there is a surge in these incidents. As if that very dramatic episode that had been so widely covered in the media, highlighting the courage and the dignity of the woman who was riddled with bullets, had trigged some people’s primitive passions.
Is this some kind of a copycat phenomenon that is associated with suicide? It has been observed that media coverage sometimes prompts more suicides. This is called the Werther effect, named after Goethe’s novel ‘The Sorrows of Werther’, published in 1774, which led to a spate of suicides among young men by imitating the protagonist.
A similar example of this phenomenon in our culture is that of ‘Masnavi Zehr-e-Ishq’ by Mirza Shauq Lakhnavi. It was published in 1861 and was for a long time banned because it poetically projected the suicide of a young girl.
I thought of this copycat trend because the honour killing reported this week also involved a couple who had married years ago and even had a child. But even if this seems far-fetched and may not be applicable to this week’s cases of honour killing, there has to be some valid explanation for what is happening in the traditional and conservative sector of our society.
For that matter, is there any formal concern about these criminal activities? Have they called an emergency meeting of social scientists and mental health experts to suggest corrective measures? Like one honour killing after another, we have one expression of outrage and condemnation after another. Otherwise, no feathers have been ruffled in the corridors of power.
Yet, this is just one dimension of what is happening to our society and how it must impact any resolve to make progress and create social harmony. Whatever it is that they discuss at the highest level, including defence and economy, cannot be disengaged from, for instance, the status of women and their empowerment in a national context.
On the face of it, this curse of honour killing is restricted to only the tribal and feudal social networks. But it is an extension of the limitations that are imposed on women in a general sense. Though it applies to youth as such, young women are particularly not allowed to be young in this country. Barring a very, very small sector of the social elite, young women in the middle and lower middle classes live suppressed lives.
Ah, whether it is appropriate or not, I have this flash in my mind of a famous dialogue – just a few words – from the old Bollywood blockbuster ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’. The villainous father surrenders to the will of her daughter to say, “Ja, Simran, ja. Jee ley apni zindagi”.
This is what every young girl desires and fully deserves: to live her own life. And it is not restricted to the matters of the heart. And when women are empowered, a process which begins with compulsory education of little girls, a nation makes progress in tangible terms.
Let us ignore honour killing for a while. Why is Pakistan ranked last among 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025? It is below even countries like Chad and Sudan. Obviously, other South Asian countries are ahead of Pakistan. Saudi Arabia is at 132.
Interestingly, there is a great paradox in Pakistan’s gender gap ranking. After all, this is the country of Benazir Bhutto, Malala, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Maryam Nawaz. You may add other names. (Or would you like to remove a name from this list?) It has been possible for a Pakistani woman to make a global impact. But the reality of the WEF’s report cannot be disregarded. Its evidence is embedded in our collective existence.
This report annually benchmarks “the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.” Since 2006, this index has tracked the progress of various countries’ efforts to close these gaps over time. Moving from the second-to-last to the last ranking, Pakistan is clearly not making any effort to close the gender gap.
What I am trying to emphasise is that the WEF’s report, which ranks Pakistan at the bottom in a certain respect, is based on an objective analysis and on facts that can be probed. But how can we measure Pakistan’s cultural and moral status in a global framework?
Frankly, I have no idea. Perhaps we should also have a look at the role played by the men in our family structure. How can a brother, growing up with a sister, one day be willing to kill his own sister, or a father become the murderer of his own daughter?
So many fleeting thoughts and no reference to specific stories of this week’s honour killings. So, to conclude, here are a few headlines that I saw in the print media: Datelined Karachi: “Lasbela couple, minor son axed to death years after free-will marriage”. And its follow-up: “ ‘Honour killing’ victim couple’s burial in Lasbela resisted”.
Datelined Quetta: “Another couple killed for ‘honour’ in Balochistan”. Datelined Karachi: “Couple who wed of own free will in Gujranwala found shot dead”. Datelined Rawalpindi: “ ‘Honour killing’ victim’s body exhumed for forensic samples”.
Finally, not all such crimes, one may be sure, are reported. But just imagine the lives that are lived by millions of our youth, particularly girls, in cramped houses in the cities, towns and villages of this country. And think of how their dreams have to contend with the harsh realities of Pakistani society.
The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@ hotmail.com
