September 06, 2008

Saira Nusrat Bibi Killed for Seeking Annulment at Age of 17

Saira Nusrat Bibi of Pakistan was forced into marriage at the age of nine...to a 45-year-old man. At the age of 17, she sought and obtained an annulment of this marriage. Apparently her parents weren't too happy about it because they arranged to have her killed for her actions:

DESPAIR among human rights workers in Pakistan over a rash of so-called "honour killings" intensified yesterday when it was disclosed that a girl forced into marriage with a 45-year-old man at the age of nine had been killed by her parents because she asked for an annulment.

The girl, 17, who had been fighting a lonely but successful legal battle, was coming out of court in the Punjabi city of Sahiwal after being granted the annulment by a judge when she was surrounded by a group of men and shot in view of police.

Another case has human rights groups upset - the case of five women in the province of Baluchistan who were killed when they were buried alive because they wanted to choose who they married.

Doesn't help that scum within their parliament defends these actions because they are traditions:

The Baluchistan case was worsened by an attempt by a member of the country's national parliament, senator Israr Ullah Zehri, to defend it, telling colleagues that "these are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them", The Weekend Australian reports.

Finally, the Government ordered an "investigation" into the deaths.

Details that have emerged from the village of Baba Kot in Baluchistan indicate that the three girls -- aged between 16 and 18 - and two of their elderly relatives were "shot at" before being buried alive.

"When the fuming elders of the Umrani tribe came to know about the intentions of these girls, they picked them up from their homes along with two of their elderly relatives," one account said.

"The crying girls were pushed into official cars and driven to a deserted area. There they were pushed out of the cars, made to stand in a queue, and volleys of shots fired at them. As the bleeding girls fell to the sand, the tribesmen dragged them into a nearby ditch and levelled it with earth and stones.

"As the two shocked elderly women tried to rescue the hapless girls, they too were gunned down and buried in the same manner. The killers after burying these women returned to their tribe like conquerors without any action taken against them."

So....do you think there will be any charges officially filed against the killers? Call me a bit jaded, but I'm not sure there will be a punishment to fit the crime.