|
I put this here specifically to hear your point of view.
Thanks for it.
K
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 5:21
PM
Subject: Re: [NewPacifica] Pakistani
Describes Killing of Daughters
This is an example of something that has nothing to
do
with Islamic law but are cultural, tribal and
traditions that go back
to the Hindu customs that were
never discarded when Islam came to the
subcontinent.
It really pisses the hell out of me that such things
are
the only things one reads or hears about in Muslim
countries.
Now I
lived half my adult life in Pakistan. My
personal experience is quite
different. I Married
into a deeply religious and loving Pakistani
family.
My inlaws are nothing like this and I lived in a joint
family
situation and they are much more typical of the
majority in
Pakistan.
Guess the hollywood version and sensational versions
are
the only ones that get into print and on film.
Same thing can be applied to
the way the Black
community experience here is presented on the
U.S.
media so why should I be surprised. To watch the
hollywood version,
Black folks too are all presented
on welfare, single mothers, and the males
hyper-sexual
gangsters and hoodlums.
Sheesh, haven't we learned to
stop accepting the
stereotyping of people?
--- Kevin
White <cuitlacoche1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Pakistani Describes
Killing of Daughters
>
> By KHALID TANVEER,
Associated Press Writer 5
> minutes ago
>
>
>
> Nazir Ahmed appears calm
and unrepentant as he
> recounts how he slit the throats of his three
young
> daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to
> salvage
his family's "honor" ? a crime that shocked
>
Pakistan.
>
> The 40-year old
laborer, speaking to The
> Associated Press in police detention as he
was being
> shifted to prison, confessed to just one regret ?
>
that he didn't murder the stepsister's alleged lover
>
too.
>
> Hundreds of girls and
women are murdered by male
> relatives each year in this conservative
Islamic
> nation, and rights groups said Wednesday such "honor
>
killings" will only stop when authorities get
> serious about punishing
perpetrators.
>
> The independent
Human Rights Commission of
> Pakistan said that in more than half of
such cases
> that make it to court, most end with cash
>
settlements paid by relatives to the victims'
> families, although under
a law passed last year, the
> minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum
death by
> hanging.
>
>
Ahmed's killing spree ? witnessed by his wife
> Rehmat Bibi as she
cradled their 3 month-old baby
> son ? happened Friday night at their
home in the
> cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern
>
Punjab province.
>
> It is the
latest of more than 260 such honor
> killings documented by the rights
commission, mostly
> from media reports, during the first 11 months
of
> 2005.
> Bibi recounted how she was woken by a
shriek as
> Ahmed put his hand to the mouth of his stepdaughter
>
Muqadas and cut her throat with a machete. Bibi
> looked helplessly on
from the corner of the room as
> he then killed the three girls ? Bano,
8, Sumaira,
> 7, and Humaira, 4 ? pausing between the slayings
to
> brandish the bloodstained knife at his wife, warning
> her
not to intervene or raise alarm.
> "I was shivering with
fear. I did not know how to
> save my daughters," Bibi, sobbing, told AP
by phone
> from the village. "I begged my husband to spare my
>
daughters but he said, 'If you make a noise, I will
> kill
you.'"
>
> "The whole night the
bodies of my daughters lay in
> front of me," she
said.
> The next morning, Ahmed was
arrested.
>
> Speaking to AP in the
back of police pickup truck
> late Tuesday as he was shifted to a prison
in the
> city of Multan, Ahmed showed no contrition.
> Appearing
disheveled but composed, he said he killed
> Muqadas because she had
committed adultery, and his
> daughters because he didn't want them to
do the same
> when they grew up.
> He said he bought a
butcher's knife and a machete
> after midday prayers on Friday and hid
them in the
> house where he carried out the
killings.
>
> "I thought the
younger girls would do what their
> eldest sister had done, so they
should be
> eliminated," he said, his hands cuffed, his face
>
unshaven. "We are poor people and we have nothing
> else to protect but
our honor."
>
> Despite Ahmed's
contention that Muqadas had
> committed adultery ? a claim made by her
husband ?
> the rights commission reported that according to
>
local people, Muqadas had fled her husband because
> he had abused her
and forced her to work in a
> brick-making
factory.
>
> Police have said they
do not know the identity or
> whereabouts of Muqadas' alleged
lover.
>
> Muqadas was Bibi's
daughter by her first marriage
> to Ahmed's brother, who died 14 years
ago. Ahmed
> married his brother's widow, as is customary under
>
Islamic tradition.
>
> "Women are
treated as property and those
> committing crimes against them do not
get punished,"
> said the rights commission's director, Kamla
Hyat.
> "The steps taken by our government have made no real
>
difference."
>
> Activists accuse
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
> a self-styled moderate Muslim, of
reluctance to
> reform outdated Islamized laws that make it
>
difficult to secure convictions in rape, acid
> attacks and other cases
of violence against women.
> They say police are often reluctant to
prosecute,
> regarding such crimes as family disputes.
>
Statistics on honor killings are confused and
> imprecise, but figures
from the rights commission's
> Web site and its officials show a marked
reduction
> in cases this year: 267 in the first 11 months of
>
2005, compared with 579 during all of 2004. The
> Ministry of Women's
Development said it had no
> reliable
figures. Ijaz Elahi, the ministry's
>
joint secretary, said the violence was decreasing
> and that increasing
numbers of victims were
> reporting incidents to police or the media.
Laws,
> including one passed last year to beef up penalties
> for
honor killings, had been toughened, she said.
>
Police in Multan said they would complete their
> investigation
into
> Ahmed's case in the next two weeks and that he
>
faces the death sentence if he is convicted for the
> killings and
terrorizing his neighborhood.
> Ahmed, who did
not resist arrest, was unrepentant.
> "I told
the police that I am an honorable father
> and I slaughtered my
dishonored daughter and the
> three other girls," he said. "I wish that
I get a
> chance to eliminate the boy she ran away with and
> set
his home on fire."
>
>
>
Loraine
= = = = =
= = = = = =
Read "Internment Camps of Bangladesh," by Loraine
Mirza
Published by Crescent International Newspapers, Inc.
300 Steelcase
Road West, Unit 8, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 2W2
"The story of a
long-suffering people told with compassion and sensitivity. All who care for
justice must read this book. Loraine Mirza, an American Muslim print and
broadcast journalist, has written this remarkable account of the 'Stranded
Pakistanis,' trapped in internment camps in Bangladesh since 1972." (Zafar
Bangash, Director of Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought.)
For more
information:
e-mail:
haq_for_u@xxxxxxxxxxx
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
crescent@xxxxxxxxxxxx
crescent.uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Visit web sites:
www.statelesspeopleinbangladesh.net
www.OBATHelpers.org
www.muslimedia.com
www.ihrc.org
New Pacifica Working Group
http://www.egroups.com/group/NewPacifica
'Save Our Stations!'
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
|