Jahalat: There is No Honor in Murder; Criminality is not Culture

Posted on August 30, 2008
Filed Under >Adil Najam, >Owais Mughal, Culture & Heritage, Law & Justice, Women
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Adil Najam and Owais Mughal
Let us be as clear and unambiguous as we can. Those who think they can “restore” their honor by murdering others have no honor to begin with. There is no honor in murder. Ghairat cannot be gained or regained by butchering the weak. Indeed, murder is beghairati personified.

And let us never – never – let anyone confuse criminality with culture.

Yet, two members of the Pakistan Senate insist on doing exactly that. In defending (or seeming to defend) the most barbaric of so-called “honor killings” (in this case the burying alive of three young girls) Senators Israrullah Zehri and Jan Mohammad Jamali have not only shamed the Senate and all of Pakistan, they are in fact abusing and shaming the culture and traditions of all Baloch. They are conflating criminality with culture.

No, Senators, murder and criminality is NOT a part of “tribal tradition.” Clearly murder and criminality is not part of any religious tradition. It is certainly no part of Islam. There have been criminals and murders in all cultures and in all religions in all times. But criminality and murder is not part of any culture, any tradition, any religion. Even if some murderous actions have gone unpunished in the past, they do not define tradition, they define criminality. Those who confuse the criminal behavior of the murderous few with the essence of any culture (their own or someone else’s), abuse that culture and tradition itself. Not every tradition needs to be defended, and many need to be abandoned.

Let us never let anyone defend criminality and murder in the name of tradition and culture. Indeed, instead of defending criminality and murder in the name of culture and tradition, we should be defending culture and tradition from criminality and murder committed in its name.

For those few who may not know what we are talking about, here are the essentials from a news report in Dawn:

Balochistan Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri stunned the upper house on Friday when he defended the recent incident of burying alive three teenage girls and two women in his province, saying it was part of ‘our tribal custom.’ Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah of the PML-Q raised the issue citing a newspaper report that the girls, three of them aged between 16 and 18 years, had been buried alive a month ago for wishing to marry of their own will.

The barbaric incident took place in a remote village of Jafarabad district and a PPP minister and some other influential people were reported to have been involved. The report accused the provincial government of trying to hush up the issue. Ms Shah said that the hapless girls and the women were first shot in the name of honour and then buried while they were alive. She also said that no criminal had been arrested so far.

Acting Chairman of Senate Jan Mohammad Jamali, who was presiding over the session, said: “Yasmin Shah should go to our society and see for herself what the situation is like there and then come back to raise such questions in the house.” Maulana Ghafoor Haideri of the JUI-F said there was no tradition of burying women alive in Baloch society because it was against Islam’s teachings. Jamal Leghari of PML-Q emphatically stated that there was no custom of burying people alive, adding that the Baloch people did not believe in it.

Senator Jan Jamali commented: “This is a provincial matter and it is being investigated at the provincial level and let us wait for the report of the investigation.” Leader of the Opposition Kamil Ali Agha accused the Balochistan government of ignoring the incident and said no jirga could order the burying of women alive and no law allowed anyone to commit such a crime and go unpunished. He urged the government to punish the people involved in it. Leader of the House Mian Raza Rabbani said: “We condemn the heinous act and assure the house that a complete report on the incident would be submitted on Monday.”

One can be shocked and angry and aghast at what one has been hearing. But one cannot remain quiet. To merely speak out may not help in itself, but to remain silent is to condone that which is horrible and inhuman with our silence. Even if speaking out does nothing except provide us with catharsis, silence emboldens the criminals and murderers who commit their heinous barbarism in the name of culture; and in doing so kill not only the innocent and the weak but the very culture and traditions that they speak of.

So, speak we must. But as we speak, let us also remain focused on what it is that shocks us and makes us angry and aghast. Yes, it is the words of these Senators – people who should know better – that cannot be reconciled. But, even more than that it is the act of barbarism that triggered the controversy in the first place. One does not want these two Senators to get away with what they have said, but even more than that those who have committed the henious act of burying three young girls alive must not get away with it.

One fears that the outrage has been not only triggered by but is focused on these two Senators and only on their words. Yes, indeed, what the Senators have tried to defend is indefensible and their words must be condemned in the strongest. But, and for exactly that reason, let us never forget that this story is not only about what the Senators have said, it is about the vile an venomous act of murder and criminality that triggered those words in the first place. Ultimately, even more than being about the words of two Senators this has to be about the actions of the murderers who killed and the lives of the women who are no longer alive because of those actions. It is important, but not enough, to have the Senators take their words back. It is far far more important to make sure that what happened to these three young girls must never happen to anyone, anywhere, ever again.

It was jahalat that killed them. But let neither the words of these two Senators nor the silence of the rest of us condone that jahalat.

79 responses to “Jahalat: There is No Honor in Murder; Criminality is not Culture”

  1. Jahanzeb EFfendi says:

    Its an honor to have such great personalities as decision makers and rulers of our country. We are so proud to have the ‘Custodians’ of Honor Killing, Karo-Kari and Bonded Labour as part of our government running the state of Pakistan. Such revered customs exist in all four provinces in one form or the other. It is also evident that education and power does not change the mindset of such inhuman figures! They prefer their Customs above humanity. And i won’t be entirely surprised if these men get away without a scratch. Long live Pakistan! They say democracy is the BEST revenge! Democracy has and will bring such INHUMAN CREATURES as our rulers!

  2. Azra says:

    I am glad that the govt is taking notice and the culprits are being punished.

  3. Sajjad says:

    I have the same feeling as of Mr. Umar. Its like nobody is there who can listen to you. Disappointment is at all time high among masses. “Lets fled” is just another common jargon for immigration. People who commit heinous crimes end up sitting on throne and people who dont, always suffer, be it a traffic ticket or extra charged electricity bills.

  4. Umar Shah says:

    A murder is a murder, whether cold blooded, warm blooded, with or without cause. No one except the law should be allowed to decide who dies. Until and unless laws which luckily exist in Pakistan, are implemented and perpetrators are given capital punishment these type of crimes will continue. Not to say that once that happens Pakistan will be crime free but someone somewhere down our miserable existence has to put his foot down or if we were lucky the people would rise and do whats best for them and the land (I guess I am being too optimistic here) but unfortuantely we keep going down the wrong path. Now these feudals who sit in senates and houses of legistlation have no idea what they’re supposed to do other than loot the nation. They are jahil and you cannot expect them to say anything sensible. The one man who took on the mullahs and jahils and kept them in their place is gone. He had too many enemies. Today we’re back to square one – Pakistan is going to be ruled directly by the biggest lutera and chor this nation has ever produced. There is and will be no law, whatever shreds remained of it are gone.
    May the souls of those poor women rest in peace. I dont expect any justice from the people who rule Pakistan.

  5. adeel says:

    I think what Sceptic has said is very important. We cannot fully counter such incidents until we change our mentality and attitudes toward women in general.

    It is true that while a father/brother living in Lahore is less likely to kill or injure their womenfolks, but short of that they might try to pull every string they can to stop their daughters/sisters to try to express themselves independently.

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