Honor Killing in Pakistan: The Case of 5 Women Buried Alive (Political manipulation in human rights violation)

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Men and women of full age without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry or to have a family. They entitled to equal rights as to marriage and its dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the attending spouses. The family is the natural and fundamental group, unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and state”1. But “The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions”2. Pakistan has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1996, still women continue to be ‘commoditized’3-bartered for land or money, given as swara (compensation for murder/dispute settlement) or watta satta (men acquire a wife by offering a sister or daughter in exchange), women are abused, raped or murdered by close relatives. ‘Honor ’ killing was once an unusual custom but has more recently evolved into a common practice in which men kill sisters, daughters, or other female family members to avenge a ‘shame ’ or ‘dishonor ’ she is accused of bringing upon her family or tribe4. Behaviors considered to be ‘dishonorable’ are many and can include a woman wanting to marry a man of her choice; wishing to seek employment outside the home; publicly disobeying the family patriarch; being accused of having illicit relations or seeking a divorce. This paper is aimed to briefly discuss the recently occurred case of honor killing- a “heinous criminal offence”5 where allegedly close relatives buried 3 women alive and 2 other shot dead. Detailed discussion about honor killing and its intensity is beyond the scope of this paper though I will try to give a general description with special reference t