Islamabad: The recent brutal murders of Arak and Sheetal are not isolated tragedies but the latest entries in Pakistan’s long catalogue of bloodletting conducted in the name of honour. While Pakistan’s government speaks about morality and sovereignty, the reality is that Pakistan has become a slaughterhouse for women, where patriarchal violence is not only tolerated but placed in the fabric of society and backed by state institutions.
Each year, 300-1000 women are killed by their own families under the pretext of honour. Tehmeena Rizvi, a policy analyst, in First Post, wrote that these are not crimes of passion but a premeditated execution and happen with such frequency, brazenness that they expose Pakistan for being a nation incapable of protecting half of its population and not ready to confront the barbarity it shelters.
The report stated, “The killings of Arak and Sheetal are horrifying, but they are also predictable. They happened in a country where misogyny is weaponised, where women who dare to love, marry, or simply make choices of their own are punished with death. Pakistan has normalised this slaughter to such an extent that it barely registers as shocking anymore inside its borders. Instead, honour killings are treated as ‘family matters,’ excused by police, and whitewashed by local media using euphemisms like “tragedy” or “dispute.” Murder is softened into culture. Violence is disguised as tradition.”
The much-welcomed 2016 legal reforms supposedly “closed loopholes” that enabled killers to escape punishment. Years later, families still protect perpetrators of the crime, and the jirga and tribal council back honour killings as acceptable justice. Political leaders still play to the misogynistic gallery as they are scared to raise objections to the same patriarchal structures that keep them in power.
“Laws in Pakistan are theatre; the stage props look modern, but the blood on the floor is real. The deaths of Arak and Sheetal make clear what Pakistan’s rulers refuse to admit: women in this country live in a permanent state of siege. Their bodies are not their own. Their choices are treated as threats. Their existence is conditional upon obedience to a code that sees them as property. To step outside that line is to sign one’s own death warrant. And when that death comes, the killers are rarely punished. Pakistan’s honour killing crisis is not a side issue or a cultural quirk. It is central to how the state operates—through fear, violence, and the crushing of dissent, whether political or personal,” Tehmeena Rizvi wrote in First Post.
Women in Pakistan are murdered to enforce obedience, just like Baloch voices are silenced by enforced disappearances and journalists are intimidated into submission. As per the report, honour killings are not a random crime but an instrument of control. Despite this, Pakistan calls itself a democracy, a land of values, a country of pride.
The report stated, “Where is the pride in the corpses of women dumped in shallow graves? Where is the honour in strangling daughters because they chose whom to love? Where is the morality in a state that passes laws it never enforces, that pretends progress while presiding over medieval brutality?”
Pakistan is not only failing its women but destroying them. A nation where hundreds of women are killed each year with impunity cannot be a civilised state but a patriarchal fortress built on blood and silence. Despite this, Pakistan’s leadership tries to deceive the world by mentioning reforms, quoting statistics selectively, and telling the international community that things are improving in their country.
According to the First Post report, Arak and Sheetal will soon be replaced by other women, and the killings will continue in Pakistan. The report stated, “The police will shrug. The politicians will preen. The mullahs will remain silent. And Pakistan will continue to bleed its daughters, one by one, while claiming to defend honour. But there is no honour in murder. There is only shame, and it belongs entirely to Pakistan. Pakistan has reached its lowest depths.”
A nation which cannot protect its women in their own homes provides them no safety anywhere. The report stated, “For countless women, Pakistan is no longer a country to live in, but a graveyard that buries their voices, their dignity, and their very existence.”
(IANS)
