Honor-based Violence in Pakistan and Its Eradication through the Development of Cultural and Jurisprudential Ethos of Human Dignity

• Date: 18 November 2019
• Published date: 18 November 2019
• Pages: 71-102
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-821-620191012
• Author: Sania Anwar

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights, 71–102

Copyright © 2020 by Emerald Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

doi:10.1108/978-1-78973-821-620191012

Chapter 6

Honor-based Violence in Pakistan and

Its Eradication through the Development

of Cultural and Jurisprudential Ethos of

Human Dignity

Sania Anwar

Introduction

On average, one in every ve homicides in Pakistan is an honor killing (T. Miller,

2009). Each day, at least two women are murdered by a member of their family in

the name of honor. These murders are usually based on mere accusations.1 The

prevalence of the practice is deeply rooted in the cultural concept of “woman as

a commodity,” which rationalizes the killing of a female relative for marrying or

wanting to marry a man of her choice, for refusing to marry a man of her family’s

choice, for seeking divorce, or for engaging in alleged illicit acts or relationships.

In some cases, the conscious decision or subjective intent to engage in dishonor-

able behavior is not a prerequisite: women are sometimes killed after being raped

since the rape constitutes pre-marital or extra-marital sex and, therefore, violates

family honor (Nosheen & Schellman, 2011). Victims of honor killings are stoned,

shot, burned, or buried alive, hacked to pieces with axes, or left to bleed out after

brutal assault. In this chapter, the murdered or surviving victims are referred to

as honor-transgressors.

In Pakistan, the concept of social honor is deeply rooted and upheld by two

cultural processes: psycho-cultural forces – which include attitudes, beliefs, and

values that provide the structures of consciousness that legitimize honor-related

violence; and socio-structural forces – which include political, religious, and eco-

nomic structures of authority that legitimize gender-based violence that has as its

presumed purpose the preservation of family honor (Johnson & Karlberg, 2006;

1Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, State of Human Rights in 2015 (2016).

Approximately 1,100 women were killed in Pakistan in 2015 by relatives on so-called

honor grounds.

72 Sania Anwar

see also Ross, 2006, pp. 19–20). Internalization of gender-based oppression is

thus best understood within a conceptual framework that explains how psycho-

cultural and socio-structural forces are intertwined in the practice of honor kill-

ings. From such a perspective, an analysis of the “free will” of women (Higgins,

1996),2 and perhaps even of many men, to engage in or legitimize honor killings

becomes complex (Bertelsen, 2005, pp. 122–123).3

Through internalized oppression, many women in Pakistan not only endorse

but also facilitate honor killings.4 The deep cultural roots of the practice attract

female support for it in the same way that the practice of female genital mutilation

summons to its defense the voices of many powerful women (Benedek, Kisaakye, &

Oberleitner, 2002, p. 271).5 Those who resist condemnation of honor killing claim

that it cannot be thought of as a violation of women’s rights when it is supported

and carried out by the members of the protected class itself. This chapter seeks to

analyze the nature of the internalizing processes that sustain societal acceptance of

honor as justication for violent acts against women.

We begin by describing the communitarian, collectivistic, and honor culture

of Pakistan, which places a strong emphasis on the avoidance of shame. We then

show that in such an environment, men defend honor through violence that is

motivated largely by guilt, while women justify it as a defense against shame.

Both men and women are thus trapped within a “shame culture” that conceals

female sexuality by attempting to control or de-emphasize it. This analysis will

focus largely on the psycho-social forces that discourage women from taking a

stand against honor-based violence. The discussion illustrates how emotional and

psycho-social responses that justify honor killings are reinforced by a number of

2“The question still remains as to how feminists can reconcile the possibility of inter-

nalized oppression, or false consciousness, with the anti-essentialist rejection of any

core of womanhood, or true consciousness.”

3“For the behaviour of a subject to be considered the product of free will, therefore,

it is sufcient, according to soft determinism, that the subject’s entire functional ap-

paratus, including the psyche, has not been thwarted by any external or internal forces

in performing its function: namely, to behave in the way that is optimal for that subject

in a given situation.”

4A high prole incident that highlighted internalized oppression in honor killings was

the murder of Samia Sarwar. On April 6, 1999, 29-year old Samia, a law student

and mother of two, was shot to death in her lawyer’s ofce in Lahore for seeking

a divorce from her abusive husband. Samia’s mother was a doctor and her father

was the president of the Chamber of Commerce in North-West Frontier Province in

Pakistan. During a meeting between Samia and her lawyer, her mother barged in the

ofce accompanied by a contract killer who pulled out a gun and shot Samia in the

head (see Ali, 2001).

5“Traditionally the FGM procedure was performed by women, a role either inherited

or learned from a relative. In the Gambia, the procedure is performed by a woman, the

N’gasimba, who is highly respected and believed to possess supernatural powers. In

some communities, performing this role brings respect to women who originate from

poor families and ethnic groups that are otherwise regarded as inferior.”

Honor-based Violence in Pakistan and Its Eradication 73

political, legal, and religious factors at play in Pakistani society, including proce-

dural injustices inherent in Pakistan’s Sharia law, public shame sanctions, and the

increasing anti-Western social and political fervor.

Based on the analysis of social, psychological, religious, political, and legal

factors that come together to produce a culture that justies honor killings, we

outline recommendations for addressing these dynamics. The argument here is

that Pakistan’s women’s rights movement must undergo signicant reconceptu-

alization if it is to combat societal internalization of destructive gender norms.

This process of reconstruction must have two objectives: to build an effective

autochthonous movement by advocating for change from within existing insti-

tutional frameworks and to enhance the representation of women leaders within

the country.

Finally, we close by outlining the most effective means to minimize internali-

zation of social honor and the consequential gender-based violence – the devel-

opment of a counter-culture of human dignity, which is neither an attribute of

one’s social rank nor an attribute of one’s conformity to the societal honor code,

but is grounded in the equal and inherent worth of all human beings. This chap-

ter advocates the idea that human dignity, wherever it may be found, has, at its

core, universalistic “minimum content” based on the intrinsic value of all human

beings. However, despite the pluralistic “minimum content” of human dignity, the

vehicles for developing human dignity as a value require customized frames for

different cultures. Postulating a workable denition of human dignity for Paki-

stan requires that it be anchored in established Islamic sources that safeguard per-

sonal integrity and freedom from coercion. The key in renovating Sharia law in

Pakistan would be to develop the least restrictive legal procedures and principles

that promote human dignity without imposing intolerant majoritarian norms. A

successful outcome of such a model can establish the potential for a pragmatic

evolutionary trend in Sharia law as a microprocessor for transnational discourse

on human dignity.

Factual basis of Honor Killings

Common justications for the practice of honor killings include a range of acts or

omissions by women that can be perceived as infringement on a man’s or a family’s

honor. Such acts include deance of social and sexual norms, pursuing a marriage

or relationship of choice, seeking a divorce, or suffering a rape. To a large extent,

the factual basis for an honor killing is largely socially irrelevant, as the killing is

simply legitimized by a declaration of an honor violation by any male relative.

Dishonor resulting from mere assertion of deance of social nor ms, regardless

of its validity, is sufcient. The alleged nonconformity with social norms can be

based on supercial and frivolous grounds (Amnesty International, 2002).6 Inict-

ing death as punishment for a dishonorable action is not an exclusive prerogative

6A man killed his wife alleging she took too long to serve him a meal and another man

murdered his wife after he had a dream that she had been unfaithful.