Oscar-winning film casts light on honor killings in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan — Four years ago, an online wedding video that went viral cost three of Afzal Kohistani’s brothers their lives.

The video showed two brothers dancing as women clapped at a wedding party in a northern Pakistan village. A council of elders issued a death sentence against the pair, as well as four women and a 12-year-old girl. Their crime: bringing dishonor on their families by violating a strict local code against men and women mingling.

Relatives of the women could not find the two brothers, who went into hiding, so they killed three of Kohistani's other brothers — along with the women and girl. “In these last four years, there hasn’t been a single day when I haven’t asked the question, ‘What did they do wrong?’ ” said Kohistani, 27.

People around the world may be asking similar questions as a result of a Pakistani film that won an Oscar Sunday night for best documentary short subject. Girl in the River by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy tells the story of Pakistani teenager Saba Qaiser, who survived an honor killing attempt at the hands of her father and uncle after she married against their wishes.

Around 500 people, mostly women and girls, died in honor killings last year, usually for alleged infidelity and refusing to submit to arranged marriages, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Women's rights activists say the actual number of victims in orthodox Muslim communities is far higher than officially reported, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“So-called ‘honor killings’ take place in virtually every part of Pakistan, urban or rural, developed or underdeveloped, all social classes, castes, ethnicities, sects,” said Rubina Saigol, a rights activist in Lahore. “Pakistan has not moved forward significantly with regard to violence against women and discriminatory laws despite an increased number of women in parliament and government.”

Saigol said many “honor killings” are really about something else. “Honor is simply the excuse used to cover up the crime, which is often for seizing property and settling economic and other disputes,” she said.

The release of Girl in the River has prompted Pakistani officials to claim they are redoubling their efforts to end the practice.

“There is no honor in honor killing,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said at a screening of the film at his office last week.

Obaid-Chinoy previously won an Oscar and two Emmy awards for documentaries about the Pakistani Taliban and acid attacks against women. "This is what happens when determined women get together," Obaid-Chinoy said in her acceptance speech Sunday night.

At the Feb. 22 screening, she said the practice flouts Islamic traditions that revere women.“There is a fundamental recognition that honor killings have no place in a religion that gives women such an elevated status.”

Asma Jahangir, a human rights attorney in Lahore, credits authorities for being more aggressive in prosecuting honor-killing cases than 15 years ago. “In the past, political parties and the judiciary justified honor killings, but no longer,” said Jahangir. “There has been a shift. The laws have been strengthened but social behaviors are difficult to change.”

A 2014 case that garnered international attention shows how ingrained honor killings are. Farzana Parveen, a 30-year-old pregnant woman, was stoned to death by her father and other male relatives for marrying the man she loved instead of her cousin. Her father and other relatives were sentenced to death for the killing.

Yet the woman's uncle defended what they did. “It is the prerogative of the men in the family to decide the future of their daughter,” said Khalid Muneed, who did not participate in the stoning. “I don’t see anything wrong with this mind-set. This is what differentiates us from the West. We can discipline our daughters according to our rules and we can teach them a lesson, too.”

In the wedding video case, a court sentenced one killer to death and five others to life in prison for the murders of Kohistani’s three brothers. However, nobody has been brought to justice for the deaths of the women, whose bodies have not been found.

“The girls’ family wanted to go for our blood and they killed my brothers,” said Kohistani. “Whoever thinks that this incident has happened and we have moved on is mistaken. I don’t understand. How does killing someone defend your honor?”