Farzana Iqbal was stoned to death simply for marrying someone she loved. This should be a lesson for all of us who apply labels.
The world we live in is both dark and brutish. As people, we make the world that much worse by defining ourselves through the way which we treat others, most of which is ruled by ignorant adherence to myth, legend and backward customs.
And for what? To stake a claim of divine superiority over other people, cultures…and even one’s one family?
While here in the U.S. people cast about concerning the level of misogyny displayed by Elliot Rodger as he planned to kill every attractive woman and/or couple he saw, there is a real and true level of misogyny taking place around the globe, and it’s far more insidious than the ramblings of a mentally ill boy who believed that privilege was his birthright.
Just this week in Pakistan, a woman was executed by stoning (who still does that?) by her own family in front of a high court just because she married the man she loved. That’s right, a woman was killed by her own fucking family simply because instead of being a stereotypical floozy or whore, she chose to do the sensible thing and get married to the one person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and that’s a crime so severe that being beaten to death with rocks is the only just remedy.
Twenty members of her family, including her father and brothers, proceeded to beat Farzana and her husband Mohammad Iqbal with bricks and batons as they showed up to court to answer to charges that Mohammad had kidnapped Farzana. The truth is that the two were engaged for a number of years prior to marrying.
Years.
None of that mattered, however, as arranged marriages are the preferred method of marriage in the very conservative nation, as Pakistanis view marriage for love as a transgression against one’s family, bring shame upon each member.
When the couple appeared at the courthouse, Farzana’s family was there waiting, where they fired off guns, snatching her from her husband. She was taken to a construction site off to the side of the courthouse and she was swiftly beaten to death. Soon after, the father simply surrendered to a cop, saying that what his family done was an “honor killing”, something, by the way, which is completely legal.
Farzana Iqbal was only 25 years old.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, more than 850 women were senselessly executed in “honor killings” in 2013 alone. There is no honor in murder. How can there be?
This happened on Tuesday, just days after the Rodger rampage, but you don’t hear much about it in these parts. Some call it a barbaric part of a culture we can never know, and it is. You’ll not hear anyone call for an invasion into Pakistan to save women from this culture of violence and subjugation. There’ll be no shipping embargoes, or UN sanctions. This is simply reality, and all we can do, all people like you and I can do is give a shit.
We have to share their stories, and remind ourselves that there is such a thing as misogyny, and it’s not defined just by little boys who are angry that a girl won’t give them the time of day. What happens in places like Pakistan every day is real, and far more pervasive than having to field date requests from men most women don’t like.
I know what you’re thinking. How dare I equate the situations, or attempt to lessen the impact of sexual harassment on American shores by showing how much worse it is in other places. Maybe I am doing that to a certain extent, but when you see Twitter activists use #YesAllWomen as a rallying cry, I think it’s important to truly grasp what ALL women actually entails. I’m certain Farzana could’ve used some support in her long and ultimately tragic struggle.