FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES.

"Pakistan Passes Bill Approving Death for Honor Killings
By SALMAN MASOOD

Published: October 26, 2004

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 26 - Pakistani legislators in the lower house of Parliament, acting at the behest of President Pervez Musharraf, passed a measure today proposing the death penalty for the killings of women committed in the name of honor, a move that human rights advocates consider a first step toward progressive legislation in Pakistan.

Nonetheless, the bill met with strong criticism from opposition members and human rights advocates who said the proposal was weak and would prove to be ineffective.

"It is an eyewash and an offense against the civil society," an opposition member of Parliament, Sherry Rehman, said.

Each year, hundreds of Pakistani women are killed by relatives acting in the name of honor, on the ground that the woman's behavior in some way has impugned the family's reputation. The women include those believed to have committed adultery and those who marry without the family's consent.

Many of those killings go unreported, or, if reported, are not investigated. The killings are rampant in rural areas of the country, which have high rates of poverty and illiteracy and continue to be dominated by feudal landlords.

In the southern province of Sindh, under a centuries-old tribal custom known as karo kari, family or tribal members kill men and women even if they only come under suspicion of having had illicit sexual relations.

"We must have the courage to redefine the word 'honor' and for effective implementation of this law," Nilofer Bakhtiar, an adviser to Prime Minister Shaukad Aziz, said in Parliament after the bill was passed despite a boycott by opposition parties.

The bill proposes the death sentence for the most extreme cases of "honor killings" and prison terms from seven years to life in others.

Ms. Bakhtiar said that in 2003, as many as 1,261 women were killed across the country in the name of honor and other such customs, the state-run news media reported.

"This tale of horror and tears must come to an end now, and we should have the courage to go for it," Ms. Bakhtiar said.

The bill is a result of the personal efforts of President Musharraf, who has repeatedly called for such a law. In a speech in May, Mr. Musharraf stressed the need for a law banning honor killings, saying that "it would lend more strength to Pakistan's efforts to do away with this intolerable practice."

While rights advocates commend the initiative and resolve shown by President Musharraf, they question the effectiveness of the measure passed today. The activists and liberal opposition parties also criticize the continued existence of other laws that treat women in a discriminatory manner.

Pakistan's last American-backed military ruler, Gen. Ziaul Haq, enacted the discriminatory laws in 1979 in an effort to Islamize the country. Critics say the laws equate rape with adultery and extend the requirement for four adult Muslim male witnesses in cases of adultery and in cases of rape as well.

In the case of honor killings, the laws allow the relatives to pardon the killers if they meet the relatives' compensation demands.

This loophole, critics say, has been exploited by perpetrators of such killings, who manage to escape punitive action after being pardoned by parents or relatives, who in most cases themselves instigate the murder in order to redeem the lost family honor.

Referring to the measure passed today, Ms. Rehman said the bill retained the problem of compromise "and allows the murderers to continue to be forgiven by the heirs of the victim,'' adding, "Ninety-eight percent of the murderers get acquitted."

Ms. Rehman, who presented a similar bill on behalf of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party last year, went on: "The government bill also doesn't remove the discretionary power of the judges who allow such compromise.''

The bill now goes to the Senate, Parliament's upper house. If approved there, it will become law."

Pete's Points

Changing the law is one thing, enforcing it another.

No change will take place in Pakistan unless there are changes to the training and behaviour of law enforcement officers both within the police force and the judiciary and the attitude of the ordinary Pakistani man in the street also changes. A law of this kind will only have an impact on general community atitudes and behaviours if the underpinning rationale for the views about the rights of women change. Given the history of Pakistan and the way in which moral behaviour is taught in many of the more fundamentalist religious institutions within the country this is highly unlikely.

The cynic in me wonders whether Musharraf has insisted on legislation like this to convince the USA and indeed the rest of the world that his country is changing towards the more secular and democratic vision that the USA has for the Muslim world?

Let us not forget that Musharraf is a dictator who was brought to power through a military coup. His attempts at reform may be put in place during his rule and be enforced through might. The moment that he is deposed, however, more fundamentalist ideas about the "rightful place of women" are likely to return and the people of Pakistan will continue in the ways that they have maintained for over 1400 years.

It is interesting to note that Islam is only around 1400 years old. If we recall the level of fundamentalism that took place in the Christian Church in the 1400s - crusades, the Inquisition, and the like, then we might have a greater understanding of what is most likely taking place within the Muslim world. Let us just hope that the moderates will have more influence in that world than the moderates did in the Christian world of the 1400's.

If not, the world is likely to be in for a rough ride.