An analysis of honour crimes: a focus on men victims of honour in Pakistan
By: Harini Manisha
Tags: Human Rights, Honour Killing, Pakistan Politics, Violence, Pakistan

[Image downloaded from https://www.globalvillagespace.com/karo-kari-in-sindh-a-practice-related-to-honor-that-has-no-honor-in-itself/]

A recent article on the Pakistani newspaper Dawn stated that 510 women and 259 men fell prey to honour killing during five years in Sindh, Pakistan. Commonly known as karo kari, literally meaning ‘black man’ and ‘black woman’, it is an honour based practice which originated in rural and tribal areas of Sindh but carried out in other regions as well. Karo kari, popularly known as a rasam, namely a custom, punishes men and women accused of sexual transgressions with death or expulsion from the community. The murders primarily involve women who are thought to have brought dishonour to their family by engaging in pre-marital or extra-marital relations. To restore this honour, a male family member must kill the female in question. On what concerns the co-accused man, if he is found with the woman, he could be killed. Otherwise, if the woman alone was killed or expelled, the jirga usually allows the killer or accuser to exact fines from the co-accused man or eventually demand a replacement with another woman. As mentioned above, the region in which this practice originated is Sindh, most specifically Upper Sindh. Paradoxically, Sindh is the most progressive province in Pakistan, characterized by its liberal values and being the symbol of mystic Islam. Moreover, it is the least affected region by Islamic extremism where historic legislation against gender violence have been passed, such as the prohibition of marriages of girls under 18 and laws against discrimination against women and minorities. In Pakistan, the two words denoting honour are ghairat and izzat but they are interpreted differently. Ghairat indicates a defensive type of honour, whilst izzat encloses values of prestige, respect and status. As Nafisa Shah affirms, karo kari and ghairat are “masks screening out a vast and untidy field of multiple conflicts.” An honour killing is the result of several elements entwined together, such as gender, State, custom and law.

Much of the research going on right now raises the profile of violence against women and girls whilst the profile of male victims are often ignored, mainly due to the concepts of masculinity, honour and shame that prevent men from coming forward, in addition to a lack of awareness generated by the “men cannot be victims” social construction. I will first analyze how people become karo and kari, following by the role of the State, focusing in-depth on the relationship between law and custom, and how newer laws seem to provide a legal space for this practice in many ways instead of rejecting it. I will take into account some real cases and see whether the theories concerning female victims of honour crimes can be extended to male victims as well.

Karo Kari: how people are branded as black

People, in particular women, can be accused of being kari just by looking at men and in most cases, honour killings are the result of family feuds, where women are the first to be targeted just for the sake of inflicting a defeat on the enemy. Black has always been considered the colour of impurity, and this does not change within the karo kari context, where the name itself evokes the idea of black symbolizing a sin. As opposed to black, there is red, gahro, the colour of innocence. An accused man can profess its innocence by stating that he is gahro rather than karo. Basically, the first step consists of labelling men and women as black, it works as an indelible mark and outcasts the person from the others. This branding is also called karhain jo tiko, the mark of blackness. The following step is cutting them off society permanently, by murdering, marrying the woman off to someone in a far-off village or banishing the man.

[Image download from http://stopharassmentnow.org/honor-killing-cases-pakistan-causes-statistics-laws/]

There is an objectification of karo kari: when women are killed or thrown out their communities, the expression bahan kadhi se is used, meaning “we took our arm out”. The branding, the separation and the objectification of the person help the family to show alienation and a lack of attachment to the victim. A tactic implemented to give the authority to inflict violence is by branding the victim publicly. The announcements are often loud as an attempt to gather witnesses and culturally legitimate their act of violence that in most cases is justified by the community. Whether they are expelled or killed it is not relevant, as in either way they end up being categorized as socially dead and their existence forgotten.

The State and karo kari: law, custom and power

In pre-partition cases, a husband could benefit from the exception of “grave and provocation plea” if he killed his wife or her lover in case they were guilty of adultery. Courts were quite willing to give a broader interpretation to this plea. Thus, men were legally empowered to punish women. In Pakistan, there are institutions for which there is either no Quranic authority or on which the Quran is negative. For instance, General Zia-ul-Haq could not ignore the stance taken by the Quran on what concerns the interest on capital, which is expressly forbidden. To compensate this transgression, right-wing religious politicians relied on the Islamic social order which is based on the stability of the family unit and more specifically on the social control of women. Therefore, they hoped to protect Islamic identity through the continuation of Muslim personal laws and provisions against women even as they compromised the emerging capitalism on the other hand. Under Zia-ul-Haq, even Pakistan’s criminal law was subject to radical changes especially when the Hudood Ordinances were introduced under which “theft, consumption of alcohol, extra-marital sex, rape, and making false allegations of adultery, would all be governed by Islamic teachings.” Within this process of Islamization, particular attention should be given to the law of qisas (retaliation) and diyat (blood money), incorporated in the Pakistan Penal Code by the superior judiciary and not directly by Zia-ul-Haq. Most specifically, under Islamic law, punishment for crimes like murder takes two forms: qisas, an equal retributory punishment as inflicted, or diyat, which is paying the legal heirs’ compensation for their loss. Generally speaking, in a situation where two parties are involved, influencing the weaker party to accept the offer by the stronger party, is relatively easy. Usually, the victims’ families forgive the accused under this law, encouraging the decriminalisation of the murder. Therefore, this law has negatively impacted on the laws of rape and honour killings, creating incongruities into the criminal justice system and allowing culprits to go easily free. The present law applied to karo kari killings is framed as Islamic in line with the State’s objective of dictating the lives of citizens according to Islam.

In 2004, the Government passed an act making honour crimes illegal. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 2004, known as the Honour Killings Law made several changes in the Pakistan Penal Code and the Criminal Code of Procedure, mainly making additions to existing provisions and including qatl- i-amd, meaning intentional murder, within the sphere of “honour”. Although many points were not incorporated into the Act, some important changes were made. For instance, new additions to the definition of honour crime:

“offence committed in the name or on the pretext of honour means an offence committed in the name or on the pretext of karo kari, siyah kari or similar other customs or practices”

Other amendments include the prolongation of punishments from 14 to 25 years, giving off women as a compensation for a crime was made illegal with penalties, removal of the possibility for the murderer to be the wali (heir) allowing the State to take the responsibility of wali, in case of necessity. However, there are many fundamental gaps in this Act, and many loopholes were not closed, such as the possibility for the perpetrators of honour crimes to be pardoned by the victim’s family. There was a large amount of ignorance about the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2004. The most shocking fact is that even lawyers, civil society members and the police were quite ignorant about this law. If the authorities are not aware of the law, even if cases are brought to them, they will not implement the relevant sections of the law and, therefore, will not properly deal with the issue. The promulgation of a punitive law provides a potential victim with a sense of support, but due to the lack of awareness, this does not happen. The legal loophole mentioned before was subsequently closed with the passing of stricter anti-honour killing legislation in 2016 following the death of Qandeel Baloch, a Pakistani celebrity killed by her brother. Nonetheless, activists affirm that 1000 people die for honour every year in Pakistan, still, the real number of victims is likely much higher, as honour killings are often recorded as different crimes, covered up, or not reported at all. Besides, the country has yet to see a single conviction for this type of crime. Despite the negative effects of Zia’s Islamization of the country, in everyday karo kari practices, the religious discourse is largely absent, and when it is present it is always positioned in opposition to karo kari custom.

Hard access to justice plays a crucial role in alimenting honour killings, as the majority of the population, revealed a lack of faith in the judiciary and very low levels of contact with the courts. According to Siddique:

“Access to lawyers is as low as 2.5 per 100,000 people in Punjab and Balochistan, 2.75 in Sindh, and 5 in Khyber Pakthukhwa, and varies in direct proportion to proximity to towns and cities.”

Shocking was the attack and killing of Farzana Parveen in front of the Lahore High Court, who died soon after being attacked with bricks, stones, and sticks thrown at her by family members. The fact that the killing was carried out exactly in front of the High Court says a lot about people’s attitude towards the judiciary. This may explain why honour killings are so common in remote villages, even if this practice is carried out by wealthy families in big cities too.

[Image downloaded from https://slewnwords.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/farzana-parveen/]

Another element that can better explain why people prefer turning to tribal councils knows as jirgas rather than approaching courts are the delays in disposal cases. It could take years for a case to be over within a court, whilst it may take less than some hours for a jirga to release a verdict. The State, by trying to reject karo kari, is in reality, expanding its legal space of practice, mainly because law and custom cannot be considered as two different entities in Pakistan. Shah, describes them to be “two products of modernity who are articulated in different ways, in which custom alternates with formal law and even comprises it.” Karo kari is recognized as a retrograde practice, at the same time, many others defend it as the implementation of a sacred value of systems. It is important to recall that power in postcolonial Pakistan has been claimed by a military establishment together with an elite that has worked closely with the judiciary to legitimate its claims over the country. The State’s power is devolved and shared with this local elite and, today, with the family or what Shah calls “kin groups”. Kin or group identity is of critical concern to the discourses of both law and custom, as tribes or families are those who perpetuate, sustain and normalize violent articulations of karo kari. In many ways, Pakistan is based on personal and family networks, relationships that form the basis of power and privilege in the country.

Differences between male and female murders

A huge part of the honour violence discourse in Pakistan is also confined within gender binaries. Although at least a third of the recorded killings are of men, only female murders are noted down. Nafisa Shah, during her fieldwork, noticed how women and men are killed in different ways. First of all, women are usually killed by close family members whilst most men are not killed by immediate family. Being ghairat connected to women, it is usually a close family member of the woman the one to threaten the man, who may or may not be related to him. Male killings lead generally to acts of revenge by his family, implying that when only women are killed the probability of acquittals and compromises in court is higher. Another important point that needs to be raised is the difference between the number of accused popping up after a murder. As Shah affirms, only one accused was named when a woman was killed, whilst at least half a dozen were named when a man was, emphasizing the way in which a man’s death is actively challenged and rarely forgiven. Kari women do not deserve to be grieved after death and they are not even properly buried, whilst karo men are still buried in proper graveyards. In 2016, in some newspapers, an article appeared about the murder of a man in Burewala, whose throat was slit by his in-laws because they objected his marriage. Muhammad Irshad, fled Burewala after marrying his wife, Mussarat Bibi, precisely because he feared revenge from his in-laws. However, he returned home to visit his parents, and that is when he was killed:

“The assailants were armed with knives and hatchets, and after inflicting several wounds on Irshad’s body, they slit his throat”

In this honour crime case, Irshad has become the embodiment of a rare gender reversal. Taking into account what mentioned before about the differences between male and female murders in honour killings, the victim was not killed by members of his immediate family, but by his wife’s family. Secondly, due to the rarity of a man being killed for honour, the news made the headlines. Unfortunately, there is no further information about the crime that could be helpful for analysing the case. Presumably, the killers were arrested but we do not know what happened to his wife, as sometimes even if the culprits end up in jail, there are other members of the family ready to restore the honour by carrying out the unfinished task. Another unusual case involved a woman named Monil Mai and her lover, Sadaqat Ali. Monil Mai had been having an affair with Sadaqat Ali for several years and wanted to marry him in order to divorce her husband. However, after having faced his refusal, she decided to take revenge by throwing acid on him. Acid attacks against women are not unusual in Pakistan, but women are rarely the perpetrators of such attacks. Even, in this case, we do not have enough information to address it comprehensively.

A prevailing common trait between these two news is the lack of exhaustive information and details. All the articles are really brief, and just two or three men honour killing cases pop up on the internet. Again, the reason lies in the concepts of masculinity, honour and shame mentioned earlier in this essay, in addition to a lack of empathy. Whoever is considered black, does not need to be grieved or pitied. This is common, especially when it comes to women, and it is shown by the members of the community, police officers, and judges. This is a direct outcome of the naturalization of violence in Pakistan and the attempt to use honour to legitimate violence: ghairat is tied to women, but it is not only a male prerogative to show ghairat as kinswomen are entitled to use this term to justify violence as well. In other words, we have multiple masculinities, and femininities in the same social setting: men are the custodians of women and older women help the men in attaining this role. When a man kills a woman for ghairat he simply performs his role as a guardian, thus he is publicly acclaimed. If he is considered cruel and the protection of honour has nothing to do with it, he is shunned. On the other hand, women’s power is related to their age, social and political status within the family.

The role of the community

The role of the community is vital in commissioning honour killings. The community constantly emphasizes the passive role of women, and if she tries to get free from this role or misbehaves, then it is the community who condemns her and the entire family. More than everyone, it is the community who puts pressure on men to behave in a certain way and handle women. The community acts as a partner in crime playing a passive role and not offering any help to the victim and his or her family. This passiveness encourages the killers to justify and get away with such murders. Moreover, the victim’s family has to endure emotional and psychological pressure because the community tends to treat them very harshly, socially isolating them. It often becomes impossible for the family to live within their own community. Usually, girls suffer the most, as people are unwilling to marry girls belonging to the victim’s family. In contrast to this, the murderers are treated with great respect.

[Image downloaded from https://dailytimes.com.pk/546179/karo-kari-the-murder-of-honour-in-sindh/]

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2004 did not have a huge impact on rejecting honour crimes, but it indeed paved the way to some positive results. Its promulgation has resulted in the issue being taken out from home and brought into the public space. Following the Act, an increasing number of cases started to be reported, supporting a change in people’s mindsets and attitudes towards this gruesome tradition. When a woman is killed for honour, the co-accused man can be killed too. But he has the possibility to choose whether to pay a fine or marry off a woman of his family in exchange. Due to their privileged status, male murders are not that common. This does not imply that they deserve less attention on this matter. Honour crimes are an evil practice where the distinction between men and women should not be made. In a patriarchal country like Pakistan, as a man, you cannot show any weakness and must embody masculinity, honour, and power. Where women are the culprits, men often avoid reporting it out of fear of being ridiculed or shamed. In fact, articles about men killed in honour crimes are rare, and the existing ones are short and lack of details. There is an evident disparity between the help services provided for men and women. Although more services should be available for women as the main victims of violence, there still needs to be provision for men. If protecting manhood is strictly related to control women and to defend one’s ghairat, then a man cannot afford to be seen as a victim. Even if he is labelled as karo, his murder would be registered to prevent the culprit from escaping somewhere where killing him is more difficult, whilst the murder of a woman is never reported because admitting the reasons for her murder could incriminate male family members. There needs to be greater access to the courts and the cases must be properly registered by the police. Awareness-raising about this issue and the law is crucial, and the media can play a huge role, not just by reporting the latest honour killing, but also providing details about the law and its implications. Educating both children and adults is essential to raise awareness, and the State needs to keep a firm hand to ensure proper dissemination of information.

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