The courthouse in Lahore Pakistan was the scene of a shocking act of religious violence, even by the standards of the Middle East. The family of a pregnant woman stoned her to death in front of the courthouse in Lahore, Pakistan after she married a man against their wishes. This “honor killing” occurred when Farzana Parveen, 25, showed up to contest the abduction case filed by her family against her husband. The father had filed the case on the ground that their marriage was not approved by him and therefore was a case of abduction.
Parveen feel in love with Mohammad Iqbal, 45, and they were engaged for years. However, the family withheld its consent and under Muslim traditions, even though she is an adult woman, she was to be subject to the arranged marriage of her father’s choice. She refused and married Iqbal. Some twenty family members, including her father and brothers, waited for her outside of the courthouse in broad daylight when she arrived with her husband. The family fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from Iqbal but she resisted.
The family grabbed bricks from a nearby construction site and in front of a crowd of onlookers and in front of the courthouse, they stoned her to death. It is not clear what the court police was doing during this melee. One would have thought that shot fired in front of a courthouse would have brought a police reaction from inside. Stonings take time and yet no police intervened. There is no account of anyone in the crowd intervening. A woman was stoned outside of the high court of Pakistan in broad daylight without any record of an attempted intervention from anyone.
She was three months pregnant.
Iqbal said that they fell in love after the death of his first wife but that the family were insisting on his paying a great deal of money for her.
Her father has claimed that this is an “honor killing” and sanctioned by Islamic law. He is quoted 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.”
Source: Big Story
“Although Muslims do not formally ordain religious leaders, the imam serves as a spiritual leader and religious authority. There is a current controversy among Muslims on the circumstances in which women may act as imams—that is, lead a congregation in salat (prayer). Three of the four Sunni schools, as well as many Shia, agree that a woman may lead a congregation consisting of women alone in prayer, although the Maliki school does not allow this. According to all currently existing traditional schools of Islam, a woman cannot lead a mixed gender congregation in salat (prayer). Some schools make exceptions for Tarawih (optional Ramadan prayers) or for a congregation consisting only of close relatives. Certain medieval scholars—including Al-Tabari (838–932), Abu Thawr (764–854), Al-Muzani (791–878), and Ibn Arabi (1165–1240)—considered the practice permissible at least for optional (nafila) prayers; however, their views are not accepted by any major surviving group. Islamic feminists have begun to protest this.”
…
“The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, as emphasised by Pope John Paul II in the apostolic letter “Ordinatio sacerdotalis”, is “that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
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“Today, over half of all American Protestant denominations ordain women, but some restrict the official positions a woman can hold. For instance, some ordain women for the military or hospital chaplaincy but prohibit them from serving in congregational roles. Over one-third of all seminary students (and in some seminaries nearly half) are female.”
—(Wikipedia, Ordination of Women).
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was banned from receiving an honorary degree from Brandeis University for speaking courageously and forcefully about the depraved way this religion treats women.
And they have nukes. Lovely.
Just to clarify, I don’t think it is accurate to state that the family committed this heinous act according to “Muslim traditions”. In the washington post story that covers this atrocity they do point out that the Koran doesn’t even call for stoning. They also talk to human rights activists on the ground in Pakistan that complain about how these atrocities have no basis in religious text but are perpetuated, even by non-religious folks seemingly comfortable with the trappings of modernity, out of tradition. What we have here is a problem with a specific culture. There have been countless incidents of hindu women being killed by family members for the alleged offence of rejecting an arranged marriage and/or marrying outside of the caste, regardless of whether the Vedic texts actually call for that. Before people jump on me for being PC, I just think these issues need to be accurately reported not only to prevent prejudicial generalizations but also for the case of efficacy; meaning, the only way to stop a “cancer” is to get at the correct cause. Look, you’re not going to get millions of Pakistanis to leave their religion. What you can do to improve their respect for human rights and the human rights of women, in particular- and on this point I agree with the professor- condition aid and other relations on the government taking these issues seriously. Also another thing we can do – and this is why I think the Islam-bashing can be counter productive- is support Muslim human rights activists and feminists (they exist) on the ground in their ideological fight against the troglodytes using religion to justify medieval cultural traditions. From what I know, innovation of religion or ascribing pre-Islamic mores and traditions to Islam, which counter Islamic beliefs or concepts of social justice, is supposed to be big no-no in pious Islamic circles.
mimi wrote: “I don’t think it is accurate to state that the family committed this heinous act according to “Muslim traditions”. In the washington post story that covers this atrocity they do point out that the Koran doesn’t even call for stoning.”
This is slippery speech. The Koran doesn’t call for stoning, but the Koran does justify honor killings. Following are the pertinent passages in three different translations:
018.074
YUSUFALI: Then they proceeded: until, when they met a young man, he slew him. Moses said: “Hast thou slain an innocent person who had slain none? Truly a foul (unheard of) thing hast thou done!”
PICKTHAL: So they twain journeyed on till, when they met a lad, he slew him. (Moses) said: What! Hast thou slain an innocent soul who hath slain no man? Verily thou hast done a horrid thing.
SHAKIR: So they went on until, when they met a boy, he slew him. (Musa) said: Have you slain an innocent person otherwise than for manslaughter? Certainly you have done an evil thing.
018.080
YUSUFALI: “As for the youth, his parents were people of Faith, and we feared that he would grieve them by obstinate rebellion and ingratitude (to Allah and man).
PICKTHAL: And as for the lad, his parents were believers and we feared lest he should oppress them by rebellion and disbelief.
SHAKIR: And as for the boy, his parents were believers and we feared lest he should make disobedience and ingratitude to come upon them:
I encourage you to read the entire text in context. See 18:65-81
Any woman married to someone from one of these countries, my advice would be never to visit that country ever.
Disgusting. How can a religion or even a culture overrule natural love for family, that they could kill their own? She was married and pregnant. This is a society of sick people .
Annie – she is property – chattel – nothing more.
Paul,
“bettykath – I have worked with some female egos that could use some taking down.”
Glad to see you haven’t been turned into a sissy.
It sounds like it was a set up to begin with. They were trying to get her before the court and then after. The court case was just an excuse.
bettykath – I have worked with some female egos that could use some taking down.
Seems that stoning women is part of the culture of Pakistan. Wonder how that will affect the Brooklyn man who beat his wife to death? Oh, the male ego, bigger than all outdoors.
We are in desperate need of a time machine.
The religion of peace.
Trying to figure out which is worse. The woman who was stoned in Pakistan or Boko Haram in Nigeria wanting to sell girls for $12 bucks. What’s the difference?
US boots are on the ground in Nigeria. I hope there isn’t a “Black Hawk Down” incident, which did occur in Somalia while distributing food for the hungry.
Then Clinton sent the in AC-130 gunships. No more food distribution.
Barbaric.
These people are Vermin, and should be treated as such….
Sign them up for a Drone strike
“Mujahid said the woman’s father has been arrested for murder and that police were working to apprehend all those who participated in the “heinous crime”. (Guardian)
Yellow journalism.
When are these people going to come out of the stone age and start using sophisticated drones flown by video gamers in the holy land (Amurka)?
Or perhaps the electronic crusades are next … but will be much better than the holy crusades of old where the warriors killed everyone in the village and roasted the babies over a campfire then ate them.
Isn’t progress grand?
And this country is one of our allies! Toleration of this type of behavior is wrong. Support of international norms and national laws that give religious defenses to criminal charges is dangerous and puts us all at risk. To those American politicians who wish to treat women like second class citizens to be controlled by legislation and shame, this is the result of that mindset– murder.
The US must stop supporting countries where this type of behavior is tolerated.
Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.
Why are these people parents. I think all that was involved should be stoned like she did.