Honour Killing In Pakistan Sparks A Larger Movement

Honour Killing In Pakistan Sparks A Larger Movement www.dawn.com We live in a time where being yourself is becoming a danger, even though a majority of the population knows this shouldn’t be the case. The Pakistani social media star began speaking out against the conservative nation, appearing on TV to promote female empowerment and breaking the norm by dressing in “revealing” clothes. Her career started when she auditioned for Pakistan Idol, but it was her social media presence and video posts that sent her fame skyrocketing in the country. Her last post before her death, posted on July 4  to Facebook, said, “I am trying to change the typical orthodox mindset of people who don’t wanna come out of their shells of false beliefs and old practices.” Her Facebook page has nearly 800,000 fans, so the message was heard loud and clear. Still, she was killed in cold blood in what has been deemed another “honour killing.” Waseem Azeem, Baloch’s brother, claims to have killed his sister “for honour” and has “no regrets,” as he stated during a press conference with his face covered. Baloch’s father, Mohammed Azeem, filed a case against Waseem, and has also testified against his other son who reportedly encouraged his brother to carry out said killing. Though both sons went missing when news of the killing hit the media, Waseem was arrested by officials after they found him while on the run. Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was 26 years old at the time of her death. According to Nabila Ghazzanfar, the Punjab Police spokeswoman, she most likely died of asphyxiation, as her mouth and nose were pinned shut before she died, completely blocking her airways. This, of course, hasn’t been the first honour killing, and it likely won’t be the last. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an Oscar winner for a film on this topic, calls such killings an “epidemic.” In response to the killing, she stated, “I’m very shaken up today. Activists in Pakistan have been screaming hoarse about honour killings; it is an epidemic, it takes place not only in towns, but in major cities as well What are we going to do as a nation?” She suggests an anti-honour killing bill needs to be passed. In her words, “It’s upon the lawmakers to punish these people. We need to start making examples of people. It appears it is very easy to kill a woman in this country and you can walk off scot-free.” She went so far as to bring up examples from her own experience, citing the screenings of her more recent documentary, Girl in the River. In the film, a father attempts to kill his daughter. During screenings of this film, during this scene, some crowd members were heard cheering for the father. She’s absolutely right when she says, “It is a mindset we have to change.” Baloch starred in a music video recently, which prompted her ex-husband, Aashiq Hussain, to reveal the more intimate details of their relationship with the nation. She was then strongly scrutinized in the media, despite her public cries of abuse and torture she suffered at the hands of Hussain. Radio show host Fasi Zaka described Baloch as “the most self-exposed person, and what was different about her is that she was from a poor background. She did all this on her own. She is much more than Kim Kardashian, she went against the norms of society and went on to do what she wanted, on her own terms.” And even conservatives condemn this murder, as that’s truly what it is. According to Mufti, Naeem, a conservative cleric, “Her personal life was her business, and killing someone is haram [not permissible in Islam] … The brother must be punished we cannot have any more murders in the name of honour.” Senator and women/minority advocate Sherry Rahman called to the national assembly, asking for an anti-honour killing bill. She stated: “Assuming that Qandeel Baloch’s brother will probably be arrested and punished for murder because of the high-profile [nature] of the case, the fact remains that an essentially right-wing government is sitting on vital amendments in the Pakistan Criminal Procedure Code that would disallow justice to be privatized for crimes against women.” According to Natasha Ansari, who helped organize one of the vigils for Baloch, “In a country where lives are easily at risk, media has responsibility to protect them instead of making tabloid issues out of them.” Erum Haider, a PhD student at Georgetown University and a Pakistani native, claimed that, “she was killed because she said and did things that made people feel uncomfortable and angry…We feel that there is no value to a woman’s life if she doesn’t live in a particular way…in the bounds of what a conservative, patriarchal society expects of you. We’re here to protest that.” According to Nida Kirmani, a sociology professor at Lahore University, Baloch was “a woman who was living life on her own terms, she wasn’t afraid … she was fun, loud, bold, brash and beautiful we would like to drown out those voices who think she deserved it because of the way she was behaving.” All around the world, oppression in all forms needs to be stopped, and hopefully Baloch’s death won’t be in vain. Hopefully, her message will continue to spread, even after she’s gone. Hopefully, no one else will have to die due to oppressive, normative views. Hopefully, Baloch’s unjustified death will be the last. It’s time to take a stand.