Honour killings in Pakistan are known locally as karo-kari (). According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, over 470 cases of honour killings were reported in Pakistan in 2021, although human rights defenders estimate that around 1,000 women are murdered in the name of honour every year. An honour killing is the murder of a member of a social group by other members, due to the belief the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. The death of the victim is viewed as a way to restore the reputation and honour of the family.
It is likely that honour killing has been a practice in Pakistan for many years, and, despite recent legal reforms, it remains a common practice in Pakistan today. Both international and Pakistani activists and activist groups are pushing for an end to the practice, although some say that change will not truly happen unless the general public chooses to condemn the practice.
Background Honour killing is an act of murder, in which a person is murdered for his or her perceived immoral behaviour. Such "immoral behaviour" may take the form of alleged marital infidelity, refusal to submit to an arranged marriage, demanding a divorce, perceived flirtatious behaviour and being raped. Suspicion and accusations alone are many times enough to defile a family's honour and therefore enough to warrant the killing of the woman.
In patriarchal cultures like Pakistan, women's lives are structured through a strict maintenance of an honour code. In order to preserve woman's chastity, women must abide by socially restrictive cultural practices pertaining to women's status and family izzat, or honour, such as the practice of purdah, the segregation of sexes. Honour killings are frequently more complex than the stated excuses of the perpetrators. More often than not, the murder relates to inheritance problems, feud-settling, the desire to get rid of a wife, for instance in order to remarry, or any combination of the above. Human rights agencies in Pakistan have repeatedly emphasized that victims were often women wanting to marry of their own will. In such cases, the victims held properties that the male members of their families did not wish to lose if the woman chose to marry outside the family.
A 1999 Amnesty International report drew specific attention to "the failure of the authorities to prevent these killings by investigating and punishing the perpetrators". According to women's rights advocates, the concepts of women as property and honour are so deeply entrenched in the social, political and economic fabric of Pakistan that the government, for the most part, ignores the daily occurrences of women being killed and maimed by their families. The fact that much of Pakistan's Tribal Areas are semi-autonomous and often governed by fundamentalist leaders makes federal enforcement difficult when attempted. In cases of murder, the victim's family is allowed to pardon the perpetrators, or reach a monetary settlement. The culprits are then free from prosecution and sentencing.
Terminology related to honour killing Both Appiah and Jafri explain the historical significance of karo-kari () within Pakistan. Karo can be directly translated as "black [or 'blackened'] man" and kari as "black [or 'blackened] woman" and refers to sexual intercourse outside the bonds of marriage. The term karo-kari is commonly used as a synonym of "honour killing", especially in the Sindh region of Pakistan.
Originally, karo and kari were metaphoric terms for adulterer and adulteress, but it has come to be used with regards to multiple forms of perceived immoral behavior. Once a woman is labeled as a kari, family members consider themselves to be authorized to kill her and the co-accused karo in order to restore family honour. In the majority of cases, the victim of the attacks is female with her attackers being male members of her family or community.
Cultural pressures for honour killing in Pakistan Pakistan is a collective, patriarchal society, and therefore social boundaries and community regard are based on honour; in this situation, honour is based on the behaviour of kin or members of a certain group. A Pakistani folk saying describes well the cultural importance of honour: "Daulat khonay pur kuch naheen khota, sihat khonay pur kuch kho jaata hai, ghairat khonay pur sub kuch kho jaata hai" ("When wealth is lost nothing is lost; when health is lost something is lost; when honour is lost everything is lost"). In Pakistan, honour is focused more on the perception of the community versus actual evidence. Honour is important for both women and men to uphold; women protect honour by modesty and men by masculinity. The cultural perspective behind honour is that if a woman does something that the community perceives as immodest then the men in her family must uphold their masculinity and regain the family honour by murdering the woman. If this action isn't completed the shame and dishonour can extend beyond the immediate family to the entire lineage, or even to the entire community. There are multiple other cultural characteristics that contribute to honour including a strong disdain for death. Due to this, the perpetrator of an honour killing is often highly regarded in the community because of their courage and because what they had to endure through with murdering another was worse than death itself. Many women are victimized by their own family members due to their defiance of familial expectations regarding love and marriage. This wave of violence has been exacerbated by a growing trend towards conservatism. Recent reports from the local Aurat Foundation reveal a 70% surge in honour killings between 2016 – 2017.
Prevalence As in other countries, the exact number of honour killings is not known. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan lists 460 cases of reported honour killings in 2017, with 194 males and 376 females as victims. Of these murders, 253 were sparked by disapproval of illicit relations and 73 by disapproval of marriage choice. Additionally, out of the known suspect relationship with victims, over 93% were family relationships. Although these are most likely only a sample of the actual honour killings that were completed during 2017, it still gives a glimpse into characteristics of honour killings in Pakistan. Sources disagree as to the exact number by year, but according to Human Rights Watch, NGOs and INGOs in the area estimate that around 1,000 honour killings are perpetrated each year in Pakistan."World Report 2017: Rights Trends in Pakistan". Human Rights Watch. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
In 2015, nearly 1,100 women were murdered in honour killings in Pakistan. In 2011, human rights groups reported 720 honour killings in Pakistan (605 women and 115 men), while Pakistan's Human Rights Commission reported that in 2010 there were 791 honour killings in the country, and Amnesty International cited 960 incidents of women who were murdered in honour killings that year. Over 4,000 honour killing cases were reported in Pakistan between 1998 and 2004. Of the victims, around 2,700 were women vs about 1,300 men; 3,451 cases came before the courts. During this time, the highest rates were in Punjab, followed by the Sindh province. A significant number of cases have also been reported in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in Balochistan."'Honour Killings' and the Law in Pakistan" by Sohail Warraich in Chapter 4 of Honour, Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women By Sara Hossain, and Lynn Welchman, Zed Books (10 November 2005), Nilofar Bakhtiar, advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, stated that in 2003, as many as 1,261 women were murdered in honour killings.
Complications in data Data and its absence are difficult to interpret. One reason is the reluctance to report honour killings to official bodies. Another reason is that honour killings are occurring in cultural and social contexts which do not recognize the criminality of honour killings. The very nature of honour killings reflects deeply entrenched notions of "honour" and "morality", in which the perpetrator is upholding justice and order when the victim commits deplorable social acts. The perpetrator becomes the champion of justice while the victim becomes the perpetrator and is accused of the criminal act. Human rights advocates are in wide agreement that the reported cases do not reflect the full extent of the issue, as honour killings have a high level of support in Pakistan's rural society, and thus often go unreported. Frequently, women & men murdered in honour killings are recorded as having committed suicide or died in accidents.
Specific occurrences In one of the most publicized honour killing cases committed in Pakistan, Samia Sarwar was murdered by her family in the Lahore office of well-known human rights activists Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani in April 1999. As Sarwar sought assistance for a divorce from her first cousin, her family arranged her murder after the shame felt in her attempt to marry a man of her choice. The police did not make any arrests or pursue prosecution as Sarwar's family is highly well known in elite, political circles. The 2000 award-winning BBC documentary, License to Kill, covers Samia's murdering in Pakistan.
Amnesty International reported that on 27 April 2009, Ayman Udas, a Pashtun singer from the Peshawar area, was shot to death apparently by her two brothers who "viewed her divorce, remarriage and artistic career as damaging to family honour". No one was prosecuted.
A widely reported case was that of Tasleem Khatoon Solangi, 17, of Hajna Shah village in Khairpur district, which was widely reported after her father, 57-year-old Gul Sher Solangi, publicized the case. He alleged his eight months' pregnant daughter was tortured and murdered on 7 March 2008, by members of her village claiming that she had brought dishonour to the tribe. Solangi's father claimed that it was orchestrated by her father-in-law, who accused her of carrying a child conceived out of wedlock, potentially with the added motive of trying to take over the family farm.
The occurred in Balochistan. Five women were murdered by tribesmen of the Umrani Tribe of Balochistan. The five victims – three teens, and two middle-aged women – were kidnapped, beaten, shot, and then buried alive because they refused the tribal leader's marriage arrangements and wanted to marry men of their own choosing. Local politicians may have been involved in the murders. Syed Iqbal Haider commented that the Pakistani government had been very slow to react. Senator Israr Ullah Zehri defending the killings, stating, "these are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them".
On 27 May 2014 a pregnant woman named Farzana Iqbal (née Parveen) was stoned to death by her family in front of a Pakistani High Court for eloping and marrying the man she loved, Muhammad Iqbal. Police investigator Mujahid quoted the father as saying: "I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it." Muhammad Iqbal stated that it had been a prolonged engagement, and Farzana's father had become enraged only after Iqbal refused a demand for more money than the originally agreed amount of the bride price. Muhammad Iqbal strangled his first wife so that he would be free to marry Farzana, and police said he had been released after that murder when a "compromise" was reached with his first wife's family.