There’s honor. There’s killing. And then there’s ‘honor killing’. Killing for honor? Honor in killing? Have to say, this society never fails to disgust me!
It is neither a foreign agenda nor a ‘Yahoodi Saazish’ (Jewish conspiracy). It is simply a disgusting mindset breeding in our own bloody society. A father who had sacrificed God knows what to protect and shelter his daughter, worked all his life to put a roof over her head, been with her through every moment of pain and joy suddenly decides to murder her in the most inhuman way possible by pelting stones and bricks outside a court room over marrying a guy of her choice in the name of honor? A question mark on humanity.
According to Pakistan’s human rights commission 869 women were brutally murdered last year in the name of ‘honor killings’ in the country. Although these were the ones that were actually reported, think of the screams of the several helpless women that echoed long enough but were not heard. Please tell me this is a dream. A sick, sick dream!
But even if it is, I am not the only one sleeping. PM Pakistan and CM Punjab Khadam-e-Alaa Shehbaz Sharif seem to be lost in a world of their own too. It takes two whole days—48 whole hours—2880 whole minutes for the not-so-Sharif brothers to simply ‘notice’ something is wrong. I wonder if it would have taken exactly as long if Maryam Nawaz was in Farzana’s place.
But none of this madness ends here. Yesterday, when a private news channel tried to contact SP Jaranwala Arif Shehbaz to enquire about the legal proceedings regarding the case they were told he is taking a nap. The law is on vacation. Justice is asleep.
Farzana’s husband Iqbal says he has no hope left from the police. He further adds ‘Hum insaaf lenay gaye they, Laash le kar wapis aye’ (We went to get justice and returned with a dead body).
Her father was arrested but her brothers are still out there. And so are the 30 people that stood there and watched. As well as the police officers that told Iqbal it wasn’t their job to protect him or his wife. But think for some time, if Farzana’s murderers go unpunished, we all lose! Yesterday it was Farzana; tomorrow it could be any one of us. This insanity will go on and never end unless someone is punished, unless someone is questioned.
Khadam-e-Alaa it’s about time you woke up or else the nation will ask for justice on the streets and with 180 million Pakistanis by our side we won’t be alone at all.
