Iqbal Detho

[The author is the former secretary general for Amnesty International in Pakistan. He is currently studying for an M.Sc. at the London School of Economics and Political Science]

The article analyses harmful traditional practices with reference to Pakistan, namely the killing of women and girls in the name of honour or ‘honour killings’.

Such harmful traditional practices (HTP) against children are practiced around the world under different names. However, in South Asia its manifestations are more glaring with such practices perpetuated and condoned in the garb of cultural and traditional values. It becomes worse when these atrocities are justified on the narrow and selective interpretation of religious teachings.

Globally, much criticism has been made against the prevalence of these practices by international human rights groups, human rights mechanisms and human rights monitoring bodies. For instance, the Committees under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

At attempt is made here, to look at the doctrine of cultural relativism, frequently invoked as justification of Asian values, traditions or religion—namely Islamic or Arab perspectives.

Many efforts to eliminate such practices have been taken by developing human rights standards at various fora. However, it is important to see how far these standards have impacted upon ground realities; and what gaps still exist between accepted norms and their application. In other words, does CRC address the aforementioned harmful traditional practices in a holistic way?

Any elaboration of honour killings in Pakistan requires the analysis and understanding of two customary practices—the justice system and the purdah system—which has facilitated this monstrous practice.

HTPs

HTPs are international phenomena irrespective of religion, the level of a country’s development or its form of government. Some HTPs not only threaten the physical integrity of a country’s citizens but also deprives them of their right to life e.g. female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) and honour killings.

In Pakistan, apart from honour killings, preference for a male child, forced and/or child marriages and vani, swara, walwar, sangchatti—practices where girls are given in lieu of compensation to settle disputes between two families or communities—are widely practiced.

However, the dynamics of traditional and customary practices are so deeply rooted in power inequities that they often become a source of violence. Socialization of boys and girls are designed to instil feelings of superiority in boys while girls are groomed to believe that they are inferior. This has led to a patriarchal system that has been entrenched through the passage of time and cutting across geographical boundaries.

Cultural relativism

Along with the thesis that individuals are determined by culture or society and such societies possess different beliefs, there is also a third thesis that no universal legal or moral standard exists against which human practices can be judged. This is mainly driven by the idea that human rights discourse is not universal but a product of European enlightenment.

This is a valid argument to a certain extent. However, the question arises as to how the proponents of these theses forget that there are some moral principles that are not alien to their particular culture; and that their culture itself, is a product of other surrounding factors—religious, political and economic.

International HR standards

The international human rights regime is based on a wide array of documentation regarding human rights norms known as standards or instruments. For instance, Principles, Guidelines, Programmes of Action, Resolutions and Declarations are legally non-binding in nature; and are also known as “Soft Law”. While on the other hand, Covenants, Conventions and Protocols are legally binding and are termed as “Hard Law”.

Child rights however, are emerging as a separate regime, consisting of the UN-CRC, International Labour Organization (ILO), conventions covering child labour, minimum working age and work conditions along with various UN resolutions and documents such as ‘A World Fit For Children 2002’.

Some disparate efforts have been made to eradicate HTPs at the regional level by regional mechanisms. These however have failed to give results because these regional documents or mechanisms are specifically tailored towards cultural requirements or common historical backgrounds. For example, African, Asian and Arab regions have emphasized on traditional, cultural, family and civilization values and incorporated collective duties and responsibilities to defend such values.

This is reflected in the state parties’ submission of country reports to UN Committees on women’s rights or child rights. The Human Rights Council is also not an exception in that members are supposed: “To uphold the highest standards of human rights” but nonetheless invoke custom or traditional values under various pretexts. The much trumpeted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) also hovers around preserving tradition, customs, institutions and practices of indigenous people.

UN-CRC

The UN-CRC is almost universally ratified but dogma of cultural and traditional practices eclipse its implementation. Among the various reasons for its wider acceptability is that the majority of articles in the convention was adopted by consensus during its drafting process. This is despite many contentious issues like the definition of a child, right to freedom of expression and religion, adoption and rights of the unborn child. It not only encompasses civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights but imposes both positive and negative obligations.

In its quest to be sensitive to different approaches and to reconcile with traditional culture of human rights as articulated in article 20, the CRC became the victim of political compromises like other treaties. Thus, the importance of family, cultural and traditional values was overemphasized and that is being frequently used as a tool by relativists.

Apart from article 20, CRC’s preamble paragraph 12, articles 5, 29(c) and 30 are also used as a shield for the defence of such practices. Article 24(3) touches on the issue of traditional practices but its scope has been limited to the health of children and thus falls short of explicitly calling for the prohibition of all harmful practices. However, there are harmful practices which are not health related but are still detrimental to children particularly the girl child.

Similarly, other practices such as the preference for the boy child, forced marriage or early marriage are not explicitly covered by the CRC. It is claimed that article 19 calls upon state parties to take appropriate measures to protect children from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and maltreatment while they are in the care of parents or guardians.

But the plight of children around the world speaks volumes about the failure of these states in protecting children from commercial or sexual or cultural exploitation by their guardians or non-state actors. And Pakistan is one case in point with the prevalence of several HTPs as follows:

Honour killings

Honour killing (karo kari) like other HTPs is a gruesome practice in the garb of tradition and cultural values thus giving virtual impunity to its perpetrators. Honour killing has and is claiming hundreds of innocent lives of women and girl children every year in Pakistan. In 2007 the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 636 of such cases. However it is pertinent to mention that these are only those reported by the media and police and that there are countless other such incidents that go unreported.

Honour killing is predominant in upper parts of Sindh, low lying areas of Balochistan, southern parts of Punjab and tribal areas of the North West Frontier Province. Generally, its pervasive nature is blamed on the lack of education or economic resources.

While women are mostly the victims of honour killings there are rare instances in which even a man could become a victim. For instance, if a couple is accused of an extramarital relationship, or even simply like each other, are planning to marry on their own free will or have already married without the consent of the family, they could be killed in cold blood in the name of honour.

A female including a child can be killed by her kin, if she is a victim of rape or sexual harassment on the perceived notion that she has brought shame on the family. Sometimes mere allegation is sufficient to kill. Violence against women is triggered by the male who imagines and believes he is the custodian of female honour and the judge of sexual transgression of women.

Women are also killed in the name of honour to settle old scores among tribes. At times, murderers are saved from the gallows by faking a situation where they claim that the woman had an affair with the murdered man. So an innocent woman could be murdered to save the life of the murderer. And the tragedy is that he does get a reprieve either from the Jirga system or through the criminal justice system. 

The two main factors that contribute to honour killings then, are the co-modification of women through Jirga and the concept of honour.

Jirga

Jirga is a Persian word meaning “collection of people or gathering”. Jirga is a tool used to legitimize HTPs as customary practice. In many societies where formal modern judicial institutions have not been developed and strengthened properly, informal and traditional justice systems are still widely practiced in countries of Africa and South Asia. 

Jirga is an age-old method of dispensing justice in the absence of an organized justice system. Ideally, when a dispute arises the elders of the tribe hear the two parties and through consultations arrive at a decision accepted by both parties. However, as the power of the Jirga continued to grow so did the severity of the punishment meted out as in the case of Mukhtara Mai. Here, the Jirga’s decision was to permit four men to rape Ms. Mai to avenge her brother’s affair with a female of an influential family.

The colonial powers opted, for strategic compromises, to secure indirect rule through a class of local middlemen, predominantly feudal lords and tribal chiefs. This led to the merging of tribal arbitration in then colonized India—together with British law (Common law). As the first Judicial and Advocate-General of Sindh, Captain Keith Young wrote, the only significant difference between the tribal and colonial legal system was that the law went from being oral to written.

The Jirga is defective and discriminatory because it does not give the accused female the right to voice her own defence and her blood money is set at half that of men. Hence, the dynamics of the traditional justice system are defined by a dominant few particularly, by a male-elite in the guise of traditions and customs.

Purdah

Purdah (veil) or izzat (“honour” in Arabic or Persian) is commonly understood as a specific trait of physical covering and spatial enclosure. However, here a broader view is considered including beliefs and traditional values about the behaviour of women and restrictions on their movements.

In broader human perspective, some characteristics of purdah are widely found among the peoples of the world as a variety of social avoidances and distancing. In tribal societies men control the broader social groups while women are confined to the sub-units.

Proponents of these practices mostly base their arguments on two theses. First is to segregate—creating different living spheres or spaces; public domain or preserve for men and a private domain for women. Thus the control of women’s sexuality is linked to the honour of the men of her family. And it is construed that if the honour of the woman is lost so also is that of the family’s. This is made worse if the women are unmarried.

It is ironic that men have rights over their female kin but women do not have, either for themselves or over their men. When male members transgress such limits it is not considered as bringing disrepute or dishonour to the whole family. This is because it is a socially constructed judgment by the male-elite and in accordance to the understanding of the dominant force.

The other thesis is that purdah is a means to guard the girl’s virginity, because virginity is a highly prized attribute of a woman in South Asia, North Africa and in the Middle East; but not exclusive to these regions. Among various reasons for female genital mutilation, the ultimate aim is to reduce women’s sexual desire and thus to ensure her virginity.

It is often argued that women are weak in physical strength and thus unable to protect themselves. But they are also considered unable to exercise self-control vis-à-vis sexual posturing and have strong disruptive potential due to their inherent sexual magnetism. Traditional societies discourage contact between a man and a woman who are not related because it could lead to a sexual encounter.

Conclusion

Children, as we see today, are the worst off in every conflict whether natural or man-made. They are victims of all types of violence be it hunger, poverty, trafficking, kidnapping, militancy, sexual abuse, corporal punishment, incest, or traditional harmful practices (HTPs).

The increased incidences of violence, and the novel methods and tools of violence along with the old ones are clear indications that there is wide gap in the practice and provisions of child rights. Also, the wordings and implementation of the international and national instruments are not always in the best interest of the child or even to the advantage of the child.