By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Managing Editor

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – As a court of onlookers watched outside of a Lahore courthouse on Tuesday, several male relatives beat her to death with stones, bricks and clubs because she married the man she loved instead of  her cousin.

Police investigators said the 25-year-old woman, Farzana Parveen, was stoned and beaten to death on a busy street as of about 30 men watched, but took no action to save her. Ms. Parveen was killed in the name of protecting her families “honor.” She was from a small Punjabi village 57 miles west of the city of Lahore, enraged her family in January when she married Muhammad Iqbal, a widower from a nearby village, instead of the man who had been chosen by her parents, a man who was her own cousin.

Her parents had brought a police complaint against her husband claiming that he had kidnapped their daughter. On Tuesday, Ms. Parveen was scheduled to appear in court in Lahore in the case. According to her lawyer she intended to tell the court that she had not been coerced into marrying her husband.

She was killed outside of the courthouse by her father, brother and the cousin her parents wanted her to marry as well as about a dozen male relives. So far Lahore police have charged her father, Mohammad Azeem, with murder, and the other men involved are being sought for the crime. Azeem told the police he helped kill his daughter because she had shamed his family.

While such crimes, often called “honor killings” are still seen in rural Pakistani communities where tribal traditions are strong and protections of women’s rights are weak, the crime of “honor killing” has become relatively rare in Pakistan’s larger cities. “I do not even wish to use the phrase ‘honor killing’: there is not the faintest vestige of honor in killing a woman in this way,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement condemning the horrific killing.

According to Farzana Bari, a human rights activist based in Islamabad, in many so-called “honor killings” witnesses outside of the women’s family do not step in to stop the killings and protect the victim. She said “I’ve seen in the past people stand around and watch, and don’t intervene because it is a private matter. Farzana believes honor killings are still engrained in the culture in parts of Pakistan; she said, “I think honor killing is very much part of our culture. It is a cultural form of violence which is quite prevalent in certain parts of Pakistan.”

Ultimately the brutal murder of Farzana Parveen was not shocking because it is a rare occurrence in Pakistan or any other country but instead because her death was so public, it did not occur in the dark corners of a remote village but instead Ms. Parveen was killed on the streets of a bustling city. According to a report published in April by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 869 women in the country were the victims of honor killings last year.  Activists say the number may be much higher.

For More Information please see:

CNN International – Pregnant Pakistani woman beaten to death with bricks by relatives – 28 May 2014

Reuters – Pakistan woman stoned to death by family for marrying man she love – 27 May 2014

The New York Times – Pregnant Pakistani Woman Is Beaten to Death – 27 May 2014

USA Today – Pregnant Pakistani woman stoned to death by her family – 27 May 2014