Killing Women is A-Ok in Pakistan…

Farzana Parveen was beaten to death on May 27 with bricks by the public including members of her own family for marrying a man of her own choice in Lahore. (AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images)

Not sure if you caught this one in the news but this gave me goose bumps.
Farzana Parveen, 25, was murdered by her own family outside a courthouse in Pakistan because they didn’t like her husband.  Actually, they wanted her to marry her first cousin.  This type of murder is known as an “honor kill”.  Her father and other close relatives allegedly murdered Farzana for bringing shame to the family by not honoring their wishes.

There have been a lot of conflicting stories in the news on this but here is a quick summary.
-Her husband (Mohammad Iqbal) killed his former wife to marry her was a free man
-She was pregnant when murdered
-Farazana’s family just come forward and accused her husband of killing her

A lot of twists and turns in this story.  Regardless, this is clearly a human rights issue.   In Pakistan and many other countries, women do not have the same rights as men.  They often are treated as the property of the husband… While this is an extreme case, it should be a wake-up call for people to realize just how bad things could be.  To me, this is a hate-crime.  Had she been a man, things would have been quite different for her.

I think this is a pretty good example of how dangerous it is to promote bigotry through laws.  The connection to me is that women do not have equal rights in Pakistan.  This not so subtle statement promotes hate-crimes.  Sound familiar?