A woman in Pakistan burned her 17-year-old daughter alive as punishment for marrying against the family’s wishes, the latest in a series of honour killings that result in the deaths of nearly 1,000 women every year in the conservative Muslim country.
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| Hassan Khan, the husband of Zeenat Rafiq, holds up his wife’s marriage consent certificate. |
Police said Zeenat Rafiq’s mother, Parveen, tied her to a cot and drenched her in kerosene before setting her on fire on Wednesday. Neighbours in the working-class area of Lahore came running when they heard screaming. But Nighat Bibi, who lives nearby, said family members kept them from entering the house.
When the police arrived they found Zeenat’s charred body near a staircase. Her mother was arrested soon after.
The victim’s husband, Hassan Khan, told reporters the pair had been “in love since our school days” but Zeenat’s family had rejected several marriage proposals, forcing them to elope last month. He showed an affidavit of consent signed by his wife before a magistrate. He also displayed photos on his phone of a smiling Zeenat wearing a red dress.
Sheikh Hammad, a local police official, said the mother confessed to killing her daughter with the help of her son, Ahmar. He quoted the woman as saying: “I don’t have any regrets.” Another police officer, Ibadat Nisar, said the body showed signs of beating and strangulation.
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| Hassan Khan shows a picture of his wife, Zeenat Rafiq, at his home in Lahore on Wednesday. |
He told BBC Urdu: “Her mother has confessed to the crime but we find it hard to believe that a 50-year-old woman committed this act all by herself with no help from the family members.”
Hundreds of women are killed each year in Pakistan – often by their own family members – for violating the country’s conservative norms regarding love and marriage. Sex outside of marriage is seen by many Pakistanis as a stain on the honour of the woman’s entire family, one that can only be removed by killing her.
Last week, a schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was set on fire for refusing to marry a man twice her age. The prime suspect is the father of the man she refused to marry, who is being held in custody along with four other suspected attackers.
A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burnt-out van.
Khan said her mother and uncle had visited her three days ago to try to persuade her to return home for a marriage ceremony with the family, so she would not be branded an eloper. He recalled his wife telling him: “Don’t let me go, they will kill me.”
guardian
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