Recently, the incident in which a mother burnt her daughter alive after she married for love, has made the sane members of our society completely numb, as it is the worst incident of its kind reported ever, as how can a mother do this? Here is a mother who doused her teenage daughter with kerosene and set her ablaze for an honour, she was apparently upset with her daughter for eloping with a man, there are demons in women too to avenge for their so-called honour, as the circumstantial evidences suggest that the mother had been helped by other family members in killing the poor girl. Ironically, the couple was legally married and was in love since their school days but the family had rejected several marriage proposals, forcing them to elope at last. Consequently, the girl’s family pretended guarantee of couple’s safety, but it was only a lie. According to western laws, a child of the age of 18 years can tie a nuptial knot with his or her choice, but we are a lawless country, where laws are in dead documents, here we have created dystopian society where youth can’t breathe a word before parents ultimately have to make such daunting decisions on their own. A renowned documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won Oscar Award on her documentary, ‘A girl in the river’. If we don’t punish the perpetrators of such heinous crimes, and let them get away with it then incidents such as this will be witnessed all across Pakistan.
NASIR SOOMRO,
Hyderabad, June 9.
