Pakistani 'Honor Rape/Killings'
Pakistan has been taken to task lately on the conservative Islamic law that rules the land.Due to international news coverage, and because of the insistence of women's activists and also partly because of the financial dependence on America, Pakistan has moved in the last year to make 'honor killings/rapes' more severely punishable by law. Previously, if (rarely) the perpetrator was found guilty, he may have had to pay a small financial settlement. The law has now been amended to include a mandatory ten years up to death. The problem lies in enforcement, as the police largely regard these crimes as domestic disputes, and do not vigorously pursue them.
In Pakistan, 'honor' killings and rapes are quite common as a way to punish women and to 'protect family honor'. These assaults can be voluntary, as the case of a father murdering his four daughters, only one of which was an adult. She had merely been accused by her husband, a known abuser, as committing adultery. Her father took it upon himself to slit her throat, as well as those of his own three daughters, ages twelve, eight, and four, to restore honor as well to prevent them from doing the same thing one day.
I guess it's more honorable to kill children.
The other way these atrocities can occur is by court order. In Shariat court, Muktahr Mai was sentanced to be gang raped by four men, not as punishment for a crime she had committed, but to punish her fourteen year-old brother for impropriety. Once raped, Mai was forced to walk home nude, and after she did, everyone expected her to commit suicide. She did not, espousing the belief that the rapist is the criminal, rather than the victim.
Imagine that.
Afterward, she took her rapists to court and they were subsequently sentenced to death in an unprecedented court case, which is now in a lengthy appeal processes.
Although there are no reliable figures, probably due to fear of reporting by victims and their families, local women's groups feel that the violence has decreased markedly over the past year, possibly by as much as half. They warn, however, that the punishments must be actively sought and then enforced to be an effective deterrent.
Gotta love that Sharia law, brought to you from the 'religion of peace.'
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