'Honour Killings' in Pakistan and Compliance of ... - Aurat Foundation

1. The Status of Women in Pakistan
Women’s status in Pakistan varies across different classes, regions and
rural/urban divide, and is very much based on the different cultural
traditions and values. However, some generic statements can be made
while keeping in mind that their effects vary according to the abovementioned
elements.
Women are thought to be subordinate to men. From her birth a woman is
considered to be a burden and her ‘assets are calculated in terms of her
power of reproduction and as an object of sexual satisfaction’ 1 . Women
are denied their own identity. They are thought of and recognised as
mothers, daughters and sisters – never as individual persons. A woman is
looked upon as a ‘commodity’ going from one man’s house (her father’s)
to another’s (her husband’s). This ‘commodity’ must be protected to
ensure it is delivered in prime form to its recipient. This results in the men
in a family restricting the space of the women in the family. There are
restrictions placed on their mobility, their behaviour and their activities to
ensure they do not bring shame to the family. This, along with the
concept of purdah (veiling), which is supposedly meant to provide
protection and respectability to women, but in fact is a manipulative tool
used for control, results in internalising amongst women the notion of the
fragility and importance of their own behaviour and the insecurity of their
status. The concept of women as holding men’s ‘honour’ is also an
extremely relevant element here, but this will be discussed later in this
report. This bias is widely held – thereby women’s behaviour is
monitored not just by the men in her family but by the whole of society
where she is judged for any behaviour thought to be ‘inappropriate’.
1 “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back”, Shaheed and Mumtaz, 1987
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