Honor Killing

Stories from Holidays.

Honor Killing in Kashmir. 

 I want to share a very sad incident of an unnoticed ,unreported case of honor killing in a rural area of Kashmir with all of you today. I hope you will go through this story to support so many women in rural areas who are fighting for their birth rights. 

One day during my holidays I was sitting outside my house with family and we were enjoying beautiful weather of Kashmir. My brother-in-law’s house is just below our house that we normally talk from our lawns with each other.We were sitting up and he was sitting down with family in his lawn and we were talking with each other, his phone started ringing. He answered call and after finishing said to my mother-in-law , “ Mother get ready as you have to attend a funeral in village.”  My mother in law was sad and asked sadly, “ Who died?” Brother-in-law told her about a young lady and explained that it is said that she committed suicide. My mother-in- law then negated to attend the funeral and explained as the girl did not respect the will of God and finished her life. All the family started talking about that lady who was most beautiful girl of village and all felt sad and were wondering what can be the reason behind this suicide. After almost half hour my sister-in-law called us and asked if her mother , my mother –in-law will attend funeral , but she negated on same ground, then my sister- in – law told that it is just a rumor and she has also heard that she is murdered. All of us got surprised and my mother-in-law became sympathetic and quickly got ready to attend funeral.

Mother- in - law left with some other ladies from surrounding for funeral. We were all waiting desperately for her return. When she came back all of us anxiously asked about situation. She told us that everybody was talking that her bother murdered her. She explained that she was in love with brother-in-law of her older sister and they wanted to marry but family was not ready for this relation. When she asked her brothers to let her marry with that guy they got very angry and they forced her to marry their another cousin whom she did not like. After marriage she was not happy and mostly was staying in her mother’s home. She tried to end relation but cousin knew all story and was not ready for any such thing. Finding no hope the girl and other guy( sister's brother- in - law) started contacting and calling each other again , to find some way out.  When brother came to know about this situation he broke the phone and this was ongoing thing , boy use to send her new phone again and again whenever it was broken by her brothers. Finally brother got angry and he told to her sister if he came to know that they are contacting each other he will kill her and he swear on God for this.

I do not know how long this continued and finally boy and girl ran from home and brother got the news. He took some cousins with him and started searching for her and when he got her , he took her in a nearby jungle and killed her. No one knows how he killed her?

My mother-in-law tried to inquire how they have killed her if someone have given her bath in preparation for burial and seen any marks on her body(according to Islam when anyone dies , people give bath and clean dead body before sending them to grave)  , but all told that when they arrived family had prepared and packed the body and left face out for seeing.  But many suspect that they held her breath by a piece of cloth as people seen a piece of cloth and her one shoe in jungle.

All of us were very sad and thought and talked about this situation for many days. It is believed to be a sad and unreported case of “Honor Killing”. We thought that even if someone reports this case, there will be nothing( no punishment) as according to law , her mother or her husband can forgive the murderer , who seems to be her brother and he will not be punished at all.  

There was severe rain at night and it continuously rained all day and many houses fell, land and crops were destroyed, there were many road slides and surprising it rained only in that particular area from that jungle till our village and almost everybody opened holy book Quran and asked for forgiveness from God, as everybody believed that a big sin is committed by people of village and no one stood against it. Everyone was really scared and was thinking that whole city will slide or sink the way it was raining.

I do not know when the people will learn about Islam properly, Islam allows females to express their will for marriage. But mostly people in our part do not care for the will of females and decide their destiny as they want. When she asked properly from family to let her marry that guy , no one allowed her and forced her in marriage with a guy whom she never liked. I believe that her family forced her to run with that guy as they had not left any option for her. No one knows what were their plans but according to Islam a female cannot marry 2 guys at same time.

What about the mother , who is still calm and quiet after losing her child. You will be thinking, what can be circumstances behind that are keeping her away from getting justice for her daughter? May be it's that typical South East Asian mentality , where mother prefer their sons on daughters. Mother do not want her son get hurt and go to jail , no matter what he does .. even kill his sister.
What brother was trying to show actually ? He is real "MAN" ? He is strong? Why no one can deviate from his decision or will? He is smart and wise ? 

I was wondering what can be done in such situation were family members are killers. Is there any way to get justice for such ladies? This was really a sad event and I do not think I can forget this ever. People believe that they killed her and told to people that she committed suicide.... SIGH. Many people also believe that her beauty got bad eyes and she had this horrible end.

There was no report of incident and unfortunately no investigation was done that can make it clear , if it was a murder or a suicide. The truth is buried under deep soil with her beauty forever.

Unfortunately I do not know that girl personally as I never had the time to meet the people of my in-laws village. I hope that people will read from that particular area and stand against this crime. The girl who died need support of villagers for justice. I believe if this crime of brothers went unnoticed then they can be harmful for people in many ways. 

I really hate all those posts that are shared by people on social media about "real man". This is the result of those posts that people believe they will be real when they will be killers. There really are real man in world but I believe they are those , who open world on you , tell you what to do and what is right time to do, who trust you, stand with you, give you confidence to fight for your right. Who appreciate you and trust you as a women. Who do not think that they are perfect and know that they have their own weaknesses and do not feel shy to admit. They are not afraid to express emotions. 

Names of people and place is not mentioned intentionally. 

I am praying from God to bring forward the truth by giving a push to villagers to stand against this crime.  

I appeal from concerned authorities to take strict action and bring culprits to their end. I hope that the court will take notice of this inhuman and brutal act. 


                                        Please Do not Kill Me!!!!  
                                        
                                         Let me live my Life !!!