‘Honor Killings’ on Rise in Pakistan

Pakistan’s main human rights group said Wednesday that at least 461 women have been slain by family members in so-called honor killings this year, about 25% more than last year.

In such killings, women are murdered to protect the “family honor” for “offenses” such as having sex outside marriage, dating, talking to men, being raped or even cooking poorly.

The 2002 figure is up from about 370 honor killings in 2001 and demonstrates the need for increased protection for women in Pakistan, the private Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said.

It said the increase also shows an apparent lack of commitment by the government to fight the practice. The government has made repeated promises to improve women’s rights.

Kamla Hayyat, a senior official with the commission, said that the number of killings may be much higher and that her group is compiling a report on crimes against women.

She also noted that the increase in recorded killings might also be the result of an increased willingness by family and friends to report the crime as opposition to the practice grows in some areas of the nation.

“We are mainly relying on the data collected from the two provinces -- Punjab and Sindh,” Hayyat said. The 2001 figures are also based on reports from those provinces.

She said the commission doesn’t have enough resources to operate in Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier -- deeply conservative provinces that share a border with Afghanistan.

The fact that those conservative regions were not included in the tally suggests that the number of killings is higher.