Fake piety, real blood
Honour killings happen every day in Pakistan. But only a few make it into a police file. Even fewer stir public outrage. Suddenly officials jolt awake, stage media dramas, hound a few suspects - until the story is buried under glossier headlines. No follow-up. No accountability. No systemic fix. Just a bloody rinse-and-repeat cycle of cruelty wrapped in tribal codes and fake piety.
A woman and man are driven into the wilderness and pumped with bullets. In Attock, a husband and father-in-law riddle a woman over her 'questionable' character. A couple in Lower Dir is swallowed by the collective 'honour' of the community. Now, a 19-year-old bride in Pirwadhai is murdered after a jirga seals her fate. Yes, a jirga. That medieval relic we call our heritage, not our shame.
Let's unpack jirga, a term too often glorified while it quietly devours lives whole. It isn't some noble local council doling out justice. It's a mob of unlettered patriarchs - yes, only men - with bloated egos and unchecked power, posing as custodians of culture.........
© The Express Tribune
