“One insidious thing about honor killings is that their
purpose is to destroy not just the body but also the soul.
Killing one person is like killing all of mankind”
-Khaldia Brohi, I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride

Brohi is one of the very few women who have publicly advocated and campaigned to end the long history of honor killings in Pakistan. The idea that the loss of honor can forever damage a soul and reputation has bled into the ideologies and standards of Pakistani immigrants, following them into their new lives even miles from their homeland. Growing up, my mother would tell me a famous Pakistani saying: “Daulat khonay pur kuch naheen khota, sihat khonaypur kuch kho jaata hat, ghairat khonay pur sub kuch kho jaata hai,” which translates to when wealth is lost nothing is lost; when health is lost something is lost; when honor is lost everything is lost. Honor killings occur when male family members commit premeditated murder against their female relatives for acts of dishonor including extramarital intercourse, refusal to marry, failure to seek permission from a spouse, immodest attire, and seeking divorce.(1) These honor killings, or Karo Kari(2), have unclear origins but are speculated to have existed around the time of British colonization of the Indian subcontinent and only increased after the partition of 1947 when Pakistan gained its independence.(3) The prevalence of these murders has sparked international human rights movements for crimes against women in Pakistan. Despite these efforts and international involvement, honor killings persist creating disputes regarding the progression of Pakistan’s political forces.

Human rights crimes in Pakistan started gaining international attention in the early 2000s. The internet played a significant role by connecting the isolation of women in Pakistan with the global community and providing a platform to gradually expose the tragic reality. International organizations including WE CAN End Honor Killings, Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Millennium Declaration, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Human Rights Watch combined forces to increase awareness and demand interventions in Pakistan. These efforts and added pressure on Pakistani leadership to take accountability have led to little meaningful governmental reform.(4) Following the 2006 act, the next reform came in 2016 with the passage of the Protection of Women Against Violence Bill. Unfortunately, this legislation was again ineffective as Pakistani Prime Ministers dismissed concerns regarding the treatment of women to adopt the extremist Council of Islamic Ideology(CII) recommendations allowing for spousal violence and abuse.(5)

Despite the persistence of honor killings in Pakistan, there is hope for the future. Larger and more modern cities in Pakistan, such as Karachi and Islamabad, have largely eradicated these crimes against women through education and protest.(6) Emerging leaders, like Khalida Brohi, are hoping that combined efforts can help remote villages follow in Karachi and Islamabad’s footsteps. These movements have given women in Pakistan the courage and community to dedicate themselves to international efforts to end these practices in rural provinces. An important thing to note is that crimes against women do not
begin or end in Pakistan. There is a global problem of misogyny against women even if present only in the undertones of society. In Pakistan, these inequalities manifest in the extremity of femicide.(7) This is why education and redefining honor is so crucial. As long as women’s rights continue to be a point of conversation and controversy, there is hope change will follow.

Karo Kari translates literally to the blackened woman which implies the limited value that the female life maintains. The word “blackened” insinuates the notion that a woman can go “bad” and that this language suggests she has an expiration date. In other words, her life is merely expendable. Even in cities where honor killings have been eradicated, the concept of honor is still deeply connected to Pakistani culture. 8,095 miles from Karachi, I experience the legacy of what this culture means. I see this legacy in the way my mother tells me what a woman’s duty should be, in the way my actions are scrutinized, and in the way I am reminded how important purity and obedience are to my identity. And even though my life is not physically expendable, I am metaphorically in how my community’s perception will influence my reputation. My identity will forever embody the thousands of women subjugated to violence and moral obligations no matter how far from Pakistan I remain.

So, understanding the origin of honor killings and their importance, I redefine what honor is. Or rather, I define what honor is not. Honor is not murder. It is not oppression. It is not a form of control. It is not who you marry or what you wear. It is not more valuable than respecting human life. Dishonor is not advocating against wrongdoing. It is not seeking a divorce. It is not being independent and strong. It is not acceptable to kill a woman for. True honor will come through the human rights movements and resistance when intergenerational ideals are broken to liberate women from the violence and oppression of honor killings.

References

1 Raghu N Singh and Douglas Dailey. 2016. “Honor Killing | Sociology.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/honor-killing.

2 Refers to honor killings in the Urdu language. Translates to the blackened woman in English. Khalida Brohi, I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan. Random House, 2018.

³ Ira Klein, “Materialism, Mutiny and Modernization in British India.” Modern Asian Studies 34, no. 3 (2000): 545–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/313141.

⁴ Brohi, I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan, pp 157-168. WA, Pahor, Guramani AH, and Khan Pahore D. 2016. “Gender Inequality Causes and Impacts on Honor Killing: A Case Study of District Shikarpur, Sindh, Pakistan.” Arts and Social Sciences Journal 07 (06). https://doi.org/10.4172/2151-6200.1000229

⁵ Jamal Ahmad, 2017. “Pakistan: EU Must Use Upcoming Dialogue to Demand Progress on Human Rights.” HRCP. October 8, 2017. https://hrcp-web.org/hrcpweb/pakistan-eu-must-use-upcoming-dialogue-to-demand-progress-on-human-rights/.

⁶ Nasreen Akhatr and Daniel A. Métraux. “PAKISTAN IS A DANGEROUS AND INSECURE PLACE FOR WOMEN.”International Journal on World Peace 30, no. 2 (2013): 35 70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24543779.

⁷ “Pakistan Should Not Again Fail ‘Honor Killing’ Victim.” 2019. Human Rights Watch. August 22, 2019. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/22/pakistan-should-not-again-fail-honor-killing-victim.