Woman allegedly burns daughter alive for eloping
Days after Zeenat Rafiq, 17, eloped with a man against her family’s wishes, her relatives asked her to return home, so they could throw her a proper ceremony.
“Don’t let me go, they will kill me,” her husband, Hassan Khan, recalled her saying, according to the Associated Press.
She was Punjabi. He was Pashtun. Her family was furious that she ran away and got married without their permission.
An uncle convinced her to return. Wednesday, Zeenat was burned alive.
Police said the mother, Parveen, tied Zeenat to a cot and poured kerosene before setting her on fire, according to The
Guardian. It’s the latest of several “honor killings,” a practice that kills hundreds of girls each year in Pakistan.
Zeenat’s body was charred when police found it, the AP reported. It showed signs of beating and strangulation, Officer Ibadat Nisar said. When police confronted Parveen, she confessed to killing her daughter with the help of her son Ahmar.
Officer Sheik Hammad recalled the mother saying, “I don’t have any regrets.” Ahmar is on the run from police, CNN reported.
People commit “honor killings” to punish the victims for violating the conservative Muslim country’s norms on marriage. They believe that sex outside marriage, or an inter-ethnic marriage in Zeenat’s case, can disgrace the entire family and that the only rectification is death.
Last week, Maria Bibi, a schoolteacher, was set on fire for refusing to marry a man twice her age. Authorities arrested the father of the man she rejected and four others. Police arrested 13 members of a tribal council a month ago on charges that they strangled Ambreen Riasat, 17, and set her on fire. The crime? Helping a friend elope.
“Honor killings” are a tricky legal matter, even when the suspects plead guilty to the crime. The law in Pakistan states that family members are allowed to forgive the killer, forcing prosecutors to drop charges, The Guard
ian reported. That happens often when an entire family feels its honor has been besmirched by the victim.
Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, pledged this year to close a loophole in Islamic law that allows those who commit honor killings to go free.