A 25-year-old woman was stoned to death by
her family outside one of Pakistan's top courts on Tuesday in a so-called
"honour" killing for marrying the man she loved.
Farzana Iqbal was waiting for the High Court in the eastern
city of Lahore to open when a group of about a dozen men began attacking her
with bricks, said Umer Cheema, a senior police officer.
Her father, two brothers and former fiance were among the
attackers, he said. Iqbal suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead
in hospital.
All the suspects except her father escaped. He admitted killing his daughter, Cheema said, and explained it was a matter of honour. Many Pakistani families think a woman marrying her own choice of man brings dishonour on the family.
Iqbal had been engaged to her cousin but married another
man, Cheema said. Her family registered a kidnapping case against him but Iqbal
had come to court to argue that she had married of her own free will.
Around 1000 Pakistani women are killed every year by their
families in honour killings, according to Pakistani rights group the Aurat
Foundation.
The true figure is probably many times higher since the
Aurat Foundation only compiles figures from newspaper reports. The government
does not compile national statistics.
Campaigners say few cases come to court, and those that do
can take years to be heard. No one tracks how many cases are successfully
prosecuted.
Even those that do result in a conviction may end with the
killers walking free. Pakistani law allows a victim's family to forgive their
killer.
But in honour killings, most of the time the women's
killers are her family, said Wasim Wagha of the Aurat Foundation. The law
allows them to nominate someone to do the murder, then forgive him.
"This is a huge flaw
in the law," he said. "We are really struggling on this issue."Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/pakistani-woman-stoned-to-death-by-family-outside-court-for-marrying-man-she-loved-20140528-zrq8c.html#ixzz32xTtdjpR
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