Once again we hear of another girl murdered in Pakistan, murdered by her brother for choosing to marry the man she loved. The man she loved was a Christian who had converted to Islam to please her family thinking this was enough to be accepted. Converting to Islam made no difference to his wife’s family and the brother felt no shame in shooting her dead. Only pride in this evil crime he had committed.
The brother’s work colleagues taunted him daily, telling him how shameless his sister was and how she was bringing dishonour to his family name. The villagers with their village mentality also taunted the brother; uneducated and illiterate they were not happy and satisfied until he had taken her life.
There are no pictures of this girl taken while she was alive as her father was very strict and believed photographs were haram – forbidden. The only picture that exists is the one the police took of her, after her brother shot her dead.
The victim’s father felt no remorse at the fact that his son shot his daughter dead. The only thing he felt was pride and anger. Pride that his son had murdered his daughter and anger towards his dead daughter for bringing even more shame onto the family name, as now the wider community and family in Pakistan where aware of the dishonour she had caused by marrying a Christian.
Pakistan recently passed The Anti-Honour Killing bill in Parliament and one can only hope that this will be enough to deter those willing to murder in the name of honour.
