Beaten with sticks outside courthouse in Lahore.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW DELHI: A 25 year-old expectant mother was brutally slain outside of a courthouse in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday by her brothers and father, allegedly because she married a man that her family did not approve of.
Farzana Parveen was stoned and beaten, with sticks and bricks, to death outside of the High Court building in Lahore because she married a man named Mohammad Iqbal (45). Around 20 members of Parveen’s extended family waited outside the courthouse for her, at which point they proceeded to kill her in most savage fashion.
Compounding the tragedy is that Parveen was at least three months pregnant at the time of her death. Police arrived on the scene quickly, at which point everyone but Parveen’s father fled from the scene. Her father, Mohammad Azeem, surrendered to police and confessed that he killed his daughter because she betrayed the family’s honor.
The reason Parveen was in court was, in fact, related to her family’s disdain for Iqbal. Her family had filed a kidnapping report with local police, saying that Parveen had been forced to marry Iqbal after being abducted by him. Parveen had gone to the court to refute this claim with the police, saying that she was living with Iqbal of her own volition.
Honor killings continue to be a problem in Pakistan and India, despite steps being taken to advocate women’s rights and an overall push for modernity in both countries. Both countries experience a rash of such instances each year, with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan saying as much as 900 such murders happened in the country last year alone.
In 2000, Indo-Canadian woman Jaswinder Sidhu was killed in Punjab because she eloped with an autorickshaw driver against the will of her parents. Her mother and uncle, Malkit Kaur Sidhu and Surjit Singh Badesha, were approved for extradition to India from Canada recently because they allegedly sanctioned Jaswinder’s murder.
Police are currently searching for Parveen’s brothers and other extended family, as they were complicit in the crime. Parveen’s father is in police custody, awaiting trial.