LAHORE, Pakistan: A group of Pakistani clerics has issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, declaring “honor killing” over perceived damage to a family’s reputation against the teaching of Islam, and anyone who carries out such an attack a heretic.
Hundreds of Pakistanis, the vast majority women and girls, are murdered every year by relatives after being accused of damaging a family’s honor. Most cases involve young women trying to chose partners against a family’s wishes.
The ruling by the Sunni Ittehad Council, which includes more than 100 prominent clerics, comes after a string of particularly shocking killings including the burning to death by a mother of a 16 year-old girl who eloped with a young man.
“It seems were are moving toward an age of barbarism,” the council said in its fatwa issued on Sunday, a rare edict on the problem in the Muslim majority country of 190 million people.
“Burning women alive for marrying by their choice is against the teachings of Islam.”
The council is affiliated with the Barelvi group of Sunni Islam, the largest in Pakistan, and it holds significant influence in Punjab province, where half of Pakistanis live.
“Considering any killing in the name of honor to be justified is heresy,” the council said in a press release.
Last Friday, a father in the eastern city of Lahore, the capital of Punjab, killed his daughter and her husband because he disapproved of their marriage.
Last month, a 16-year-old girl accused of helping a young couple elope was killed and her body set on fire, in a case that again brought the into the national spotlight.
Last year, more than 500 men and women were murdered in such, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The toll this year, as of Monday, was 233, the group said.
Most suspects in honor killings are never prosecuted.
The religious council called on the government to amend laws that allow family members to “forgive” perpetrators in killings over honor, which means charges are often dropped.
In February, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif praised an Oscar-winning Pakistani film on honor killings, raising hope among activists that long-pending legislation on the issue would be passed. However, no progress has been made.
(Writing and Additional Reporting by Asad Hashim in Islamabad)
Pakistani clerics declare ‘honor killing’ as contrary to Islam
Pakistani clerics declare ‘honor killing’ as contrary to Islam
Kazakhstan urges US and Europe to help secure oil transport after tanker attacks in Black Sea
- Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said three tankers were hit en route to the marine terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium
- Russian defense ministry said Matilda tanker came under attack by two Ukrainian strike drones
MOSCOW: Kazakhstan on Wednesday urged the US and Europe to help secure the transport of oil following drone attacks on tankers heading to a Black Sea terminal on the Russian coast which handles one percent of global supply.
Unidentified drones struck at least two oil tankers in the Black Sea on Tuesday, including one chartered by US oil major Chevron, as they sailed toward a terminal on the Russian coast to load oil from Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that three tankers were hit en route to the marine terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in the Black Sea. On November 29, drones also attacked CPC’s exporting equipment, resulting in a fall in oil exports via the outlet.
“The increasing frequency of such incidents highlights the growing risks to the functioning of international energy infrastructure,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We therefore call upon our partners to engage in close cooperation to develop joint measures aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future,” it added.
Russian defense ministry said on Wednesday that the Matilda tanker, sailing under the Maltese flag, came under attack by two Ukrainian strike drones at a distance of about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the city of Anapa in Russia’s Krasnodar region.
Ukraine did not comment on the incident.
Shareholders in CPC’s 1,500-km (930-mile) pipeline include Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil company KazMunayGas, Russia’s Lukoil and units of US oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil.
Russian terminals on the Black Sea handle more than 2 percent of global crude. Its waters, which are shared by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Turkiye, as well as Russia and Ukraine, are also crucial for the shipment of grain.
CPC alone accounts for around 80 percent of oil exports from Kazakhstan.
