Pakistan-India: Shackled to customs

MASOOD KHAN

It’s a sad week in the subcontinent as cruelty and discrimination against girls and women in the name of family honour, social stigma and caste system continued unabated, resulting in more sorrowful events. A three-month pregnant woman was stoned to death by her own family members, only because she married against their wishes. The couple was in the court to contest accusations by the woman’s family that she had been abducted (by her husband). Sad thing is the insensitivity of people around — general public, lawyers, court staff and the police — no one came forward to rescue the victim. Later Urdu print media preferred to brush aside the incident under the carpet. Two girls of ages 14 and 15 were abducted, raped, strangled and hanged from a tree. While knowing what’s going on, police refused to act and save the girls, only because girls were from a lower caste. Now all sorts of justifications are being forwarded on this inaction. Slavery might have been officially abolished across the globe but apparently the mentality which permits a human being to treat the other human of same God’s creation as slave has not changed. Perhaps it’s time for soul-searching. We need to rise above the shackles of culture and customs which somewhat wrongly find their roots in religion to justify their existence. All human beings are equal. If one doesn’t like to be stoned, raped and murdered, then why choose the same for others?