Pakistan outlaws 'honor' killings

If deemed "justified," then the tribe will sanction the killing of the "blackened man." The aggrieved family men can ask for compensation for the loss of their honor in exchange for allowing him to live. And if the murder is not "justified," then the killer is fined before being set free. Often jirgas ignore the court rulings. If the couple has eloped both are liable to be killed.

Honor killings in Pakistan can be triggered by a wide range of activities, or even mere suspicions. Teenage girls and women of all ages can be issued death warrants for conversing with men, working with men in farm fields, or even speaking fondly of a man over the telephone, says Mashooq Udano, a well-known critic of the ritual. In December 2002, a 16-year-old girl was killed after she joined a dance along with relatives at a wedding reception in Larkana, a town in Sindh Province. One of the young men present caught hold of her hand; she quickly snatched it away, but her male relatives noticed the exchange and later killed her.

The Koran does not permit or sanction honor killings and religious leaders in Pakistan have on many occasions condemned Karo Kari and other honor killing rituals as "un-Islamic" and a "murder of humanity." Honor killings have occurred in other Muslim nations like Jordan, Egypt, and Bangladesh, as well as non-Muslim countries like Ecuador and Brazil.

However, the view of women as property with limited rights of their own has become rooted in Islamic culture, some social rights activists argue.

"Women are considered the property of the males in the families irrespective of their social status, ethnic, or religious group. Thus the fate of the property is in the hands of the owner, and that perception has changed women into a commodity that can be bartered, bought, and sold like cattle," says Rukhunda Naz, director of Auruat Foundation, a group working for women's rights in Pakistan.

Analysts say that President Musharraf moved to end the practice as it conflicts with his efforts to present Pakistan as a moderate Muslim country.

The practice has sparked undesirable internal unrest as well. In 1999, the marriage of a Mohajir boy with a Pashtun girl triggered ethnic clashes between the two communities in the port city of Karachi. The armed members of the Pashtun girl's family even shot him in a court that was to decide the fate of the couple. The boy Kanwar Ahsan and girl Riffat Afridi could escape death only after fleeing to a foreign country with the help of rights activists.

But Mustafa is still in search for his love in Pakistan. He is concerned about his wife, as she was kidnapped by her family members. "I don't know whether she is dead or alive. I only know that she was declared Kari. They won't let her live," says Mustafa with tears in his eyes, while sitting in his lawyer's office in Karachi.

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