On December 28th 2016, a man in Jhelum killed his own wife on the pretext of disrespecting his honour. He was not the first one to do this, nor will he be the last. According to the Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, over 1000 women are killed in Pakistan annually for honour. This begs the question: Why are our laws not deterring these crimes?

To gain a deeper understanding of the answer to this question, let’s take a walk down memory lane to ascertain the effectiveness of Honour Killings Laws in Pakistan.

Honour Killings have never been a firm standing for the Pakistani legal system. Until 2004, it wasn’t even officially punishable by law. Under international and domestic pressure, a rudimentary law finally sanctioned a term of seven years for the crime and death penalty in the most extreme cases.

This law was never used.

The reason for this was not that there were no instances of honour killing after the law’s passing. There were thousands of them. However, due to a bizarre loophole in the law, no one was ever convicted of the crime.

Honour Killings in Pakistan revolve around families conspiring together to kill a member of their family, usually a woman, for disrespecting the family’s ‘honour’. By ‘disrespecting honour’, it can be anything from marrying without consent to going out of the house without permission (varies according to the local customs). Not only is the act arelic from the days of uncultured brutality where tribal customs gained reverence but the law itself was even more archaic.

The Conservative MP for Wealden Nusrat Ghani, has proposed, in a new private members Bill – the Crime (Aggravated Murder of and Violence Against Women) Bill – that the use of the widely used and accepted term “honour” killing should be banned from official publications and that this form of violence against women and girls should be conflated with domestic violence. Both of these suggestions would have dangerous consequences for those at risk of “honour” based violence and lives will be put at risk.

“Honour” based violence and domestic violence are distinct forms of violence against women and girls, each with specific dynamics. Many women experience both, whilst some are at risk of “honour” based violence and not domestic violence. Each carries particular risks and requires different safeguarding approaches. These two forms of violence must not be conflated, and if they are, it is highly likely that there will be failures in safeguarding, resulting in serious harm and even “honour” killing.

http://ikwro.org.uk/2017/02/conflating-domestic-increased/

The term “honour killing” should be banned because “political correctness” is putting police off investigating domestic violence, a Conservative MP has said.

Nusrat Ghani warned that police officers can be wary of intervening fully in so-called honour cases for fear of offending the community.

The MP for Wealden is proposing a Bill which will ban the term “honour killing” in official publications and strengthen the support given to women who are subjected to domestic violence and killed while abroad.

It comes after a whistleblower told the Telegraph that the Crown Prosecution Service is failing to prosecute honour crimes for fear of causing “unrest” in Asian communities.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/30/ban-term-honour-killing-stop-political-correctness-getting-way/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_em

• Parveen Bibi will be executed for burning her daughter Zeenat Rafiq to death
• The 18-year-old angered her mother by getting married to an unapproved man
• Murderous mother Bibi tied her daughter to a cot and set her on fire in Lahore
• She then ran out into the street bragging of how she had killed the teenager 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4125546/Pakistani-woman-gets-death-sentence-daughters-murder.html#ixzz4W0Y4FJ8V