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:
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Good treatise, Karen, on infanticide & its opposite. At least we all agree in the West that murder is murder after birth, unlike some of those eastern places. I find it odd that suposedly spiritual people like to say that life begins at conception, meaning the spirit, when its clear to me that conception is the begining of a new body. Spirits, like you & others, have been around for eons.
Welcome Ahh2fly. What specific comments have you rolling your eyes because I’m sure everyone here understands the feeling?
I agree with Spinelli about feminists & similar complainers in this country. Indeed they should take up this cause & leave their petty ’causes’ alone.
Ho. Lee. Crap. I read the blog and I felt so sad. Such a pointless and sickening way to punish someone through an innocent baby. Horrible what people can justify. — THEN, I read all of the comments and now I’m mostly just rolling my eyes. Never thought I’d say “I just came here for the comments,” yet here I am.
Frankly….. being born in Pakistan is not really that desirable… Death might just be the best alternative!
Do you also believe in the “Divine right of Kings”?
Olly – no I am not so far to the right that I want to re-establish the Church of England or the Divine Right of Kings.
Would that monarchy wrap around the other side and meet up with the “anointed one” on the far left? 😉
Olly – I am for restoring the British monarchy, not the pretender, currently in the WH.
Mango – would you like to give an example of the lack of logical thinking by the Texas GOP and then an example of the logical thinking of the Texas Dems?
Planned Parent hood thrives. Late term abortion thrives. Welcome Home Obama
Paul,
I read the piece when it was first published in 2012. And I produced the same commentary back then as I did upthread at 5:57pm to docmadison. Your 7:16pm post also came to the same conclusion.
Nick – right. I was taught the tango by a drag queen, but I’m hard right. Who knew?
Karen – what I want to know is who led?
Help! Lost another post.
Would admin be open to either fixing Word Mess or trying another platform?
What is interesting in the abortion/infanticide debate is to look at trends over time. This debate has raged since before the advent of the written word.
There have always been efforts to determine when a life is declared worthy of protection from the law or society. Over the past 2 thousand years, it was deemed that a child was not human until a few weeks post conception, until it drew its first breath, made its first cry, lived 31 days, or was baptized. If a child was colicky, it could be deemed a changeling, switched at birth with a Fae sickly child, and so not really human. In Roman times, a father had the right to kill his children, but the mother did not. If you visit a Puritan graveyard, you will find little tombstones named “Beast” for children who died before being baptized.
Nowadays, the argument ranges from conception, when it can feel pain, when movement starts, when it is possibly viable if it was delivered, to if it draws breath.
It’s interesting to see that after thousands of years, society basically still imposes cultural limits on when humanity or personhood begins.
Based on the science, a fetus is “human” based on its DNA, which is formed at conception. It is “alive” by the definition of its functioning cells. Even single celled organisms are alive, so size is not a factor. “Viability” – a newborn cannot survive on its own. But any fetus over 6 months gestation can reasonably hope to survive an early delivery.
But the idea for a line at which a fetus or infant enjoys the protection of the law and of society is a cultural one. Most agree that infanticide and late term abortion should be illegal, but I have never seen another issue inflame passions like a discussion on where to draw any other line. The same people who agree that late term abortion is wrong will almost fling their shoes at lines like 12 weeks, 16 weeks, or 4.
I’ll bet this topic roused similar passions throughout the ages.
Karen S, I retrieved your comment at 6:44.
Nick,
Some of the things they come up with defy logic. Take Mango here for instance; one would have to be a moron to believe the ENTIRE GOP has no critical-thinking skills. And then to double-down and claim the ENTIRE Texas GOP are unable to think.
But, Mango’s comment was probably meant as an insult rather than a statement in fact. Either way, it’s lacking any effectiveness.
Olly – actually, I am so far to the right that I want to restore the monarchy. 🙂
Karen, You are not far right in the least. That is unless being viewed from DEEP left field.
Olly, The left bail all the time when they’re losing. Hell, many bailed out of this blog when they were losing and started their own blog. Leftists don’t like competition. That’s why they love govt. and hate free markets.
Doc:
“Karen, you are hard right”
Nope. Wrong again. I’m a fiscal conservative. The only party I’m opposed to on a policy basis is Liberal, because there’s never any money to pay for their proposals, ever.
And yet, I still think it would be a good idea of Liberals ask, “are we doing enough” while fiscal conservatives manage the finances.
Olly, WashPo has a FAR LEFT education dept. I personally know one of their reporters, Bill Turque. A good guy and baseball fan, but hard left. He helped drive Michelle Rhee out or DC. Hey, that rhymes. I got to know Bill when he was a cub reporter covering crime for the KC Star and I worked for the prosecutor’s office. He dated a good friend of mine. Turque wrote a good bio on Fat Al Gore, Inventing Al Gore.
As you well know, most of the MSM is liberal. Some is very liberal. The Education section of WahPo is the latter, and few would disagree. Unless you’re very liberal, that is.
Nick – the education department of the NYT is left to very hard left. I used to use some of their articles in the classroom as examples of propaganda.
I don’t know Doc. She usually doesn’t complain about all the BS she dishes out. 😉
Olly, Paul, Karen, Dusty.
I’m bailing. Too much bs for me today.
I don’t know how Annie takes it.