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A WOMAN IN Pakistan burned her 17-year-old daughter alive today to punish her for marrying against the family’s wishes.
It’s the latest in a series of so-called “honour killings” that claim the lives of nearly 1,000 women every year in the conservative Muslim country.
Police say Zeenat Rafiq’s mother, Parveen, tied her to a cot and drenched her with kerosene before lighting her on fire.
Neighbours in the congested, working-class neighbourhood in the eastern city of Lahore came running when they heard the screams, but family members kept them from entering the house, said Nighat Bibi, who lives nearby.
The police eventually arrived and found the charred body near a staircase. They arrested the mother soon after.
The victim’s husband, Hassan Khan, told reporters the two had been “in love since our school days” but the family had rejected several marriage proposals, forcing them to elope last month.
He showed an affidavit of consent signed by his wife before a magistrate. He also showed cellphone photos of a smiling Zeenat wearing a red dress.
Khan said Zeenat’s mother and uncle had visited her three days ago to try to persuade her to return home and have a marriage ceremony with the family, so that she wouldn’t be branded as someone who had eloped.
He recalled his wife telling him:
Don’t let me go, they will kill me.
Sheikh Hammad, a local police official, said Parveen confessed to killing her daughter with the help of her son Ahmar. He quoted the woman as saying “I don’t have any regrets.”
Another police officer, Ibadat Nisar, said the body showed signs of beating and strangulation.
Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan, often by their own family members, for violating the country’s conservative norms regarding love and marriage.
Sex outside of marriage is seen by conservative Pakistanis as a stain on the honour of the woman’s entire family, one that can only be removed by killing her.
Last week a schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was set on fire for refusing to marry a man twice her age. The prime suspect in the case, the father of the man she refused to marry, and four others are in custody.
A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van.
Brexit hasn’t gone away
@Diarmuid: The Brexit consequences are our 3rd priority now. After coronavirus – and then sorting out how to pay for the billions it costs!
@Ale Ceaser: and you can’t pay back the billions without sorting brexit, there needs to be solid trade deals so we know roughly where we stand in relation to import/export/ employment.any big changes will cause even more tax and unemployment burden
@Garreth mc mahon: We’ll have written an awful lot of cheques before Brexit is sorted!
Brexit, Smcexit, That is all so yesterday. It’s a one world struggle now guys. For now, forget climate change, arms limitations, economy downturns, it’s all about beating a tiny little virus. This pandemic should be a wake up call to us all. We will live in a changed world after this is finished.
@John C: Sadly that changed world, for Ireland, will include billions more borrowings. Not so much yesterday – but next summer….
@Ale Ceaser: Two saying spring to mind……. Money follows money……. and…….. Never waste a good crisis.
At the end of the day the usual suspects will be winners yet again.
@John C: one that hopefully doesn’t rely on China anymore.
Easy negotiating here!. UK we have no money.EU we have no money. Wanna trade? Ok where do we sign. Done in a few weeks.
have your say