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.
I hardly need add that my experiences with Dianetics & Scientology (proper definition is: study of knowing how to know) are open to anyone of good will, yourself included. If you say no, it simply means you do not know either subject and would change your mind if you took the time to find out for real.
TL – you do know the German government thinks Scientology is a business, not a religion.
However, you should put it the other way around, Paul. You, a spirit, picks up a body somewhere between conception and birth. Birth would make more sense but there can be reasons to make it earlier. Sometimes its compulsive & not well thought out. There are reasons for our amnesia on the subject too.
I certainly can disprove that for myself & many others I have audited (counseled, such as Dianetics) back to earlier lifetimes. I have had many lives & deaths but it was always me, a spirit. This ‘one lifetime’ nonsense is a control mechanism.
There is no contest between Infanticide & Abortion. Infanticide is much worse. Volume is a different story & most abortions are at the least unnecessary in this country due to adoption demand, but you also cannot ban it totally across the board. Part of this total ban on abortion that some require (including mother at risk, rape, huge deformity, etc.) is based of a falacial argument that the spirit (YOU) begins life at conception. Rather an odd idea to base the begining of an immortal spirit to the the exact start of an eighty odd year old mortal body.
TL – can you disprove that an unborn does not receive a soul at conception?
I think JT is pulling his hair out today for blog and football reasons.
Well, I don’t know what the algorithm is that causes posts to get caught in spam. Perhaps it is a combination of forbidden words or phrases plus commenting too frequently. Some blog commenting platforms have a time limit. Since having one post caught and now knowing the rule about links….I haven’t had any others lost. Maybe I’m just holding my mouth right when I post 🙂
Having comments lost, especially when you are in the midst of a really good back an forth debate, IS discouraging. I would prefer that, having lost comments, over having a tightly moderated comment section where every comment goes into a bin for the administrator to look at at her/his leisure. I have been on blogs where they went from a general discussion format to being moderated. Not only does this slow the momentum down of the discussion, it really kills the interest in viewing the blog at all.
On the other hand….I CAN see the frustration with constantly having to delete posts and the need to do so sometimes to just try to keep people on track. It REALLY is like herding cats. If I were the blog administrator I would likely be pulling my hair out!
DBQ, I’ve been told by a commenter here that while this lost comment is a chronic problem w/ word press he comments on a word press blog where he does not have comments eaten. You know much more than I just based on your comment. And, because you are smarter than myself. But, I know problems do not get solved if you do nothing. They just get worse. I invite good commenters like yourself here because this is the best blog I have found for legal issues. JT is a great blogger. He has worked hard to make this a balanced blog. But, just like when people were repelled by an echo chamber they are also repelled by having comments constantly lost. This is a good enough blog that people who were repelled by echo have returned. Very heartening. But, someone repelled by system problems will not return until the system is fixed. JT’s going to Sicily, so I will have a cease fire until after he returns. I know he doesn’t like this constant pressure. When I coached and taught I was a motivator. Sometimes motivating means being a pain in the ass. I’m the guy who says what needs to be said. I have NEVER concerned myself w/ being popular.
Seem to have got a bit off topic a few times. Regarding abortion, all the emphasis on killing the foetus ignores completely that the pregnancy can kill the mother. I would always support abortion on the grounds of self-defence purely. But a responsible woman concerned about morals would avoid pregnancy in the first place. After all very efficient and non- intrusive contraception exists, such as depo-provera. Which does not involve anything being killed.
The problem with blogger is that it is not as customizable for the owner of the blog as is wordpress. So even though WE may not like the comment platform, it is really the owner of the blog and who has to make the blog as he/she wants it and wordpress is a better platform for that. More versatile and more into the social media sharing capacity if the host is interested in that feature.
I’m not fond of the blogger comment platform either, although less comments get randomly lost.
DBQ – I am not sure how many of these strange compliments on the blog are spam?
Blogger is the biggest service for blogs in the world. Just go to Blogger and see all the great blogs on it.
Last year in Pakistan 1,100 children murdered for being illegitimate. In 2011 in the United States 1.06 million unborn children (most of them illegitimate) were murdered for the crime of being an inconvenience to their parent. Which country is more barbaric?
Mango, Thanks. I do not have the temperament for a blogger. I would be too incendiary. I know my role and my limitations. Commenting is my role.
Paul, Yes I have. Blogger is the biggest and best blog service. It is owned and administered by Google. Never had a comment lost yet. I’ve made thousands. Never see spam sneak through. There is a Mercedes available and we’re stuck in a Kia.
Nick – the problem I have with anything by Google is that they don’t always support it forever. Is Blogger an experiment or a product? I know nothing about it. And how big a mess would it be would it be for JT to move the blog there, get everyone directed, etc.
Would we all have to borrow pickup or vans to help with the move?
I know nothing about child slave rings in US. Nor sex trafficking. I spend a lot of time reading the news on various Internet sites. Is your only reference LifeSiteNews, which I’ve never heard of before? Can anybody verify any of these claims?
Sandy Hemming – I am active in this cause – http://wtvr.com/2014/06/24/fbi-sex-trafficking-sting-rescues-168-children/
http://www.islamawareness.net/FamilyPlanning/Infanticide/fit_article001.html
Islam and female infanticide.
I think this kind of article leaves the wrong impression that Muslims all over the world approve of infanticide, which I don’t think is the case. All religions have extremists. I wonder what the Koran really says about Infanticide. I also wonder whether late term abortion and infanticide are really the same thing. I’m curious as to how one could support one, yet condemn the other.
Happy:
Are we never to comment on atrocities around the world until we live in Nirvana? Professor Turley comments on domestic issues, as well as foreign.
I don’t know about you, but I think I’m better off being a woman here in the US than anywhere else.
Karen, it’s just my opinion. The time when I saw the Prof get really passionate was on the Australian beheading with the son in the middle and the father exclaiming “that’s my boy!” I suppose it seemed especially heinous because the man was not really Muslim but a rapper looking for attention. A lot of these people are attentions seekers. They say “Hey, look, I’m a radical Muslim” because it’s in to be a rad Muslim” It’s very sick and if you go back to that article you will see it. Now Karen. I complimented you a couple days ago. And, I will complement you again. You wrote some of your best work on Prof, Hobby Lobby Work. That was the first article I read and I was very impressed. But depressed by a lot of the comments. Yours were great btw. Thank you and I think I agreed with most of them.
Mango – a conservative Guest Blogger would be anathema for this blog, but the idea is good.
docmadison
Nick
Why are you bashing America? Haters gotta Hate?
Because they do the same thing and we ignore it and sweep it under the rug. Why is it okay for America to do it but we can Bash Pakistan because of Journalism. We have child slave rings in the USA. You know that don’t you? In St Louis MO. we collect Money and try to help as over 300,000 fall victim to sec trafficking. In New York they want greater Access to Abortion-for the Traffickers that is – ALBANY, NY, May 14, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As human trafficking victims tearfully asked New York lawmakers to pass a bill imposing tougher penalties on their captors, the president of the state’s NARAL chapter said what sex slaves need is greater access to abortion.
The women hoped to spur legislators in Albany to pass an anti-trafficking measure that stalled last year, after it was coupled with a bill to radically expand abortion. The Reproductive Health Act would allow non-physicians to perform abortions, roll back restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks, and force hospitals to refer women to abortion facilities or lose state funding.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/naral-leader-human-trafficking-victims-need-expanded-abortion-law
Now, if you all want to talk about a disgrace in Pakistan, I suggest you look under your own skirts first and your own rug to make sure it’s clean. It is a disgrace the way no one here sees this “Golden Country’s” problems.
As Jesus once said, “let him who is without sin cast the first stone”
Since William already has his commitment, how about King Harry? He appears to be a fun fellow, treats little flower girls nicely at weddings. Doesn’t have a potential FLOTUS, think of the $$$ saved! I don’t think he golfs, at least not rabidly. Other countries already like him. He was with us in Afghanistan. Nifty dresser. No hangers-on relatives. Neato accent for speeches. Has money of his own, so won’t have to spend ours for vacations. Can fly his own helicopter, don’t know about jets. When in foreign countries has relatives with castles so no need of $3K hotel suites.