The meaning of 'ghairat' has been reduced to killing the free will of women

Honor killing is an ancient disease in the Pakistani society. Many a girl has been victim of it and nobody can do anything

Once again Pakistan has been all shaken up with the tragic news of the brutal murder of Qandeel Baloch. I was sitting with my friends in the newly opened McDonald’s in Multan and I got a tweet from my friend telling me about the death of QB. It was an utter shock for me. I couldn’t register that the national controversial figure has just been killed at her own place, in her own home, by her own flesh and blood. She was not secure in her own home. And then the news generated a storm.

To tell you the truth I personally never liked QB, and it’s also true she has been a laughing stock in private gatherings, but I’m still extremely upset. It’s as if her murder as crushed my heart. I am trying to involve myself in my daily routine but I can’t. Her selfies are coming to my mind, her interviews on different occasions are in my eyes. Her latest song ‘Ban’ is the last thing which I talked about in my circle, and now I am talking about her death.

Had she died naturally, the pain would not have been this much. But it’s the way her life has been terminated that created this immense pain. Murdered by her own kin in the name of honor killing…

Honor killing is an ancient disease in the Pakistani society. Many a girl has been victim of it and nobody can do anything. The doctors of the society (lawmakers) can’t cure us from this atavistic disease.

I was wondering who the first person was to use the term ‘honor killing’ for a cold blooded murder. This term should not be used in our law. It should be discarded completely, because a murder of any kind is nothing but a simple murder. Why give characterization to plain murders? And the person who commits this crime should be trialed in the court of law or should be punished directly. Because the criminal admits openly that he murdered a female of his family in his full senses. So it should be an “open and shut case”, and the murderer should be punished directly.

The brother of QB killed her own sister in the name of “ghairat”. If he was so “ghairatmund” he should have killed himself. Why kill the poor girl who wants to live her own life as she wanted? Had this girl been living her life the way she was living without opening up and involving the media then her life would have been saved. She had been doing all this stuff since many years, but her brother didn’t feel “ghairatmund”. The meaning of "ghairat" clearly has been reduced to killing the free will of women. 

Now it’s pretty obvious that this society promotes hypocrisy and two-faced people. If you are doing something bad and you are not open about it then it means you are not a bad person at all because all that you do is hidden. But if you tried to be open about your questionable life then you are the most awful person of this society. As there is a saying in Urdu “jo pakra gaya wohi chor”. Then it’s the duty of every man to punish this chor.

QB was a person who wanted to change her life; I am not going into what ways she adopted to change it, but it’s everyone’s right to live their life as they want. Nobody should have any right to take her life. Nobody is responsible of her acts; she is only answerable to her God.

Syeda Zuria Bokhari is a Mass Comm lecturer at Institute of Southern Punjab. She is an entrepreneur with multiple talents; from meditation and sartorial arts to cooking and gardening. She is also the proud winner of the Master Chef Apron in Australia

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt