‘Honor killings’ of females soar
At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honor killings in 2006, the country’s main rights organization said, nearly double the number it recorded the year before.
The privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said many cases might go unreported, and it previously estimated that the annual total could be about 1,000.
Many men in deeply conservative rural areas consider it an insult to family honor if female relatives have an affair outside wedlock or marry without their consent. Some view the killings as a way to restore family honor.
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