Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Deutsche Welle reports a frightening and disturbing practice within Pakistan where newborn children are murdered due to the stigma of illegitimacy.
Warning: This article contains explicit information.
Adultery is often punished by vigilantism where family exact revenge against couples, often murderously. The children and mothers more often are targeted.
Nurse Razia Zulfikar of a maternity hospital in Gujranwala, Pakistan states that hundreds of children are killed simply by reason of the status of having unwed parents; a social taboo of society. The law provides a potential capital criminal offense stemming from pre-marital intercourse.
An eight-month pregnant girl came to us just a few days ago. We didn’t want to admit her to our hospital. After repeated requests from her family, we finally agreed to treat her. But we told the family explicitly that we would not kill the child,” Zulfikar told DW. “We gave the baby to the girl’s family. Only she and her family know what they did to the newborn, and how they killed him,” she added
A Pakistani welfare organization known as the Edhi Foundation estimated that 1,100 children were murdered and dumped into garbage bins last year. The figure is likely much higher as cases were tabulated only within large cities and not rural areas. Anwar Kazmi, a manager within the organization, describes the atrocities he and members of his charity have witnessed:
“A six-day-old child was burnt to death. We also found the corpses of babies who had been hanged, or who had been partly eaten by animals,” Anwar Kazmi, a manager at the Edhi Foundation, told DW.
“I can never forget one incident. A woman left a child in front of a mosque hoping that somebody would adopt him. But the cleric of the mosque ordered the people to stone the child to death. I saw the mutilated and torn body of the child myself,” he recalled
To address this painful issue, the Edhi Foundation began the Jhoola Project (meaning Cradle in Urdu) which encourages individuals to bring unwanted children and place them within cradles at foundation offices. This happens more often during the late hours and promises anonymous placement without fear of retribution against the mother or the child.
Edhi Foundation maintains over three hundred branches throughout the country.
Abortions are illegal in Pakistan with the exception of medical necessity to prevent harm to the mother. However this exception does not apply to unmarried women, leaving the mother to face persecution and perhaps the ultimately the murder of her child.
The murder of an infant in Pakistan is still a crime, but this unfortunately is not a deterrent to some who place their morals above the law.
By Darren Smith
Source:
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
You don’t fix a problem if you don’t identify the root cause! Quite trying to sweep a problem under the rug because it doesn’t suit your purpose Annie. If you aren’t willing to call a problem what it is then you are useless in serious discussions.
Look at this from the dog’s perspective. We dogs are put here on Earth by God to give guidance to humans. The humans do not listen to us and fall for these dumb religions which are not authorized by God or Dog. The religion pastors have to control their sheep so they create these rules which help keep control. Marriage has to be performed by the pastor who controls the flock and fleeces the flock once a week for revenue. So, humans, abandon all religions except that of the 8th Day Dog Adventists. Listen to your dog. Use rubbers. Raise your kids right.
BarkinDog – you do realize there is a God of Dogs and you seem to be denying the very existence of your Maker.
Darren Smith
Dredd, I retrieved your comment at 12:45.
=================================
Thanks again.
Take that WordMess !
Karen,
The article tells us of harami. Does it also say that it sanctions the killing of such a child? I’m betting no.
And I hope po shows up to offer his insight. I don’t like Karen’s sources.
It’s barbaric, no matter what the root cause.
In order to improve the value of women and girls, you need to thoroughly understand WHY they are valued less. And that is different in different countries, and regions within those countries.
What would work in China would not work in India, or the US, or Pakistan.
Different approaches for different root causes.
Karen – the reason that women are valued less is that they do not carry the family name when they marry.
Karen
Thanks for the aljazzera link. It gives the story much more credence. However, I think the ‘graphic” portion is way over the top and still unsubstantiated – particularly the cleric who called for stoning. There may be rare instances where babies are killed in hideous ways (we have our own share of those) but I would suppose that most are NOT done in the public square and I would hope most are not done with the intention to inflict great pain.
And there is no need to lecture me on the problem of unwanted girls. I know all about it. Darren’s post was on a different problem.
And yes, I do consider the RCatholic Church position on the endangered life of the woman quite barbaric. Particularly, when those men have had the finest educations and study of Western Civ. Yes, they are quite barbaric.
docmadison – can you remember the last time an infant was stoned to death just for being born illegitimate in the United States?
Annie:
“In China and in India where abortion is legal, at least infants aren’t being murdered, they are being aborted.”
Not true. Female selective infanticide is rampant in India and China. See below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/infanticide_1.shtml
No, it’s true that in this particular case, the imams are perpetuating this cultural problem.
Al Jazeerah acknowledges this:
“In Pakistan’s socially conservative society, illegitimate children are referred to as “harami,” an Arabic word that means “forbidden under Islam” — an admission, Kazmi says, that the parents have sinned.
Perhaps most vexing of all, parents aren’t leaving their newborns in Edhi’s care, Kazmi says, because a child seen as illegitimate in the eyes of God is the embodiment of the parents’ sin. Asma, for example, says she is grateful that her child lived only for a few short minutes; this way, perhaps God will forgive her.”
You can clearly see how a sea change in the mosques could improve this problem.
But, again, the imams were raised in the same tradition. How to change people’s minds and get their support?
But, of course, there are different reasons for infanticide around the world. In the US, teenage girls are often in complete denial they are pregnant, only to suddenly give birth. They kill the child to try to hide their pregnancy, even though there are safe drop offs, adoption agencies, etc that would help with the newborn.
In China and in India where abortion is legal, at least infants aren’t being murdered, they are being aborted, the very same devaluation of females is prevalent in countries that engage in misogyny as a cultural norm.
Annie – I consider abortion to be infanticide and if it were up to me, both mother and doctor would be imprisoned. Nurses too. Roe v Wade was decided because Roe lied and said she was raped (she wasn’t, she was impregnated by her boyfriend). We all know in our heart of hearts that Roe v Wade would never had made it to the Supreme Court if Roe had not lied. So, legal abortion is based on a lie.
Ah yes, it is being linked to Islam Olly, Karen just did it.
There are different reasons for infanticide in different countries.
In India, bride burning is typically done by in-laws in order to get a new dowry. It also reflects the lower value of women. There are also severe problems with the caste system that produces Untouchables. Human Trafficking. Temporary Marriages. Etc.
In China, it’s because each couple is allowed only 1 child, unless they get an exception. Boys are valued more than girls, with the result that girl children are selectively killed based on gender.
In Pakistan, the motivating force is family honor based on Sharia Law and the Qu’ran. The children born out of wedlock are “harami”, which literally means forbidden under Islam. So, in this case, yes, it is an interpretation of Islam that leads to infanticide. Moderate Muslims do not kill their children in the name of Islam, but extremists do. The cultural tradition of honor killings and infanticide are perpetuated by an extremist interpretation of Islam.
You will note that Al Jazeerah discussed how the Imam’s passionately opposed the Edhi Foundation as promoting promiscuity and vice.
Change can only come with the support of the imams.
Am I?
Karen said: “How to change cultural mores is the question.”
Annie,
You are the one linking this to Islam, why?
We all know that female babies are less valued in certain cultures. In India too, female fetuses are being aborted at a much higher rate. Are you indicating it has something to do with Islam? So why do they do so in China and India also?
Help! Lost a post!
From the link above, an example of the uphill battle the Edhi Foundation faces in trying to prevent infanticide:
“The organization created 400 such sites, but the program has had limited success. Just 18 babies were dropped off at sites in Karachi in 2013, while Edhi says it buried more than 1,300 babies last year.”
And, as for making abortions more available in Pakistan, no woman should be FORCED by her family to have an abortion OR have her baby killed. That’s a completely separate issue from abortion itself. The link also tells the story of a woman who killed her grandchild, after first considering whether to force her daughter to have an abortion.
Sad. This goes on around the world. We are so lucky to live here in the US.
Karen S, I retrieved your comment at 2:30.
Doc – seriously, they’re burning and stoning children alive in Pakistan, and you think the Catholic Church compares poorly???
docmadison:
Much as I dislike linking to them, will Al Jazeera count as an appropriately non-xenophobic source?
Girl babies are killed because they are not valued as highly as boys, and children out of wedlock are killed.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/14/infanticides-on-theriseinpakistan.html
Hmmmm.
I note the article says abortion is legal in Pakistan when the life of the (married) mother is threatened.
That’s more than we can say for the Catholic Church and Catholic Hospitals right here in the USA.