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

marriage is one result, but other scenarios include being forced to remain
in an unwanted relationship, or punished for leaving (or trying to leave)
one, or exercising choice regarding whether to marry or not, and whom
to marry…the significance attached to female virginity and the resulting
imposition (or attempted) imposition of virginity testing on females
suspected of having ‘violated’ family honour, including through having
been subjected to rape. ‘
An examination of cases in Pakistan recognises that a number of these
scenarios have been played out locally. It is important to note that even
the suspicion of any kind of behaviour that is seen to transgress social
norms is sufficient for besmirching one’s honour. Other examples include
even a conversation with another man, past relationships, revenge honour
killings, wandering unaccompanied outside the home too often, leaving
the house without permission, being the victim of rape etc. Defiance of
any of the controls or social norms translates into women ‘misbehaving’
and undermining men, the community and the social order as a whole,
thereby needing to be punished, not just for her transgressions, but also as
an example to other women.
Once a woman has behaved in a manner that has shamed the man and his
honour, he has to restore his honour in any manner whatsoever. The
necessity to regain and protect a man’s honour is judged by the
community as a whole. The logic of tribal tradition turns conceptions of
victim and perpetrator, right or wrong on their own head. Women who
are killed or flee a killing are not victims but are considered guilty in the
tribal setting. The man whose honour has been tarnished is considered to
be the victim. It is with him that the community sides, and not the ‘bad’
woman. In order to restore his ‘lost honour’ the man must return the
shameful act with one of equal intensity in a very public manner. In
honour bound societies, female chastity represents the family’s “symbolic
capital”. To protect it, the offending woman must be killed rather than
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