Although no information could be found on the term "ghatia" ("impure") among the sources consulted, much has been written by various human rights groups on the killings of women in Pakistan who have brought dishonour-real or perceived-to their families or male kin.

For a detailed account and background information on honour-killings, please consult the August 1999 Human Rights Watch (HRW) publication entitled Crime or Custom? Violence Against Women in Pakistan, as well as the September 1999 Amnesty International (AI) publication entitled Pakistan: Honour Killings of Girls and Women, both of which are available at all Regional Documentation Centres.

The "Background" section of Crime or Custom? Violence Against Women in Pakistan provides information on the general situation of women:

The situation of women in Pakistan varies considerably depending on geographical location and class. Women fare better in urban areas and middle- and upper-class sections of society, where there are greater opportunities for higher education and for paid and professional work and women's social mobility is somewhat less restricted. Seventy-five percent of Pakistan's female population is, however, rural, and the average Pakistani woman is beset with the "crippling handicaps of illiteracy, constant motherhood and poor health." And, despite the relative privilege of some, all Pakistani women remain structurally disadvantaged and second-class citizens as a result of legal and societal discrimination premised on social and cultural norms and attitudes (HRW Aug. 1999, 18).

A footnote adds that

In the less populated frontier provinces of Pakistan, life for women is very restricted and women are expected to comply with tribal beliefs and traditions. Any woman who deviates from these traditions, such as being seen with a man to whom she is not related or married, can suffer severe penalties, including death. The women observe strict purdah (seclusion of women) and are rarely seen outside their homes. However, in the more heavily populated provinces of Sindh and Punjab, which account for well over half of Pakistan's population, women have relatively greater social mobility. They are visible, working in the fields or in village areas, and have increased access to education and health care. Women in Pakistan's urban centers, although a small minority of the total female population, have the greatest mobility, with considerable access to jobs and education and greater freedom in marriage and divorce (ibid., ft. 1).

The introduction to the September 1999 AI-USA publication Pakistan: Violence Against Women in the Name of Honour, seemingly a longer version of the Amnesty International (AI) document referred to above, describes the situation of women and honour killings as follows:

Every year in Pakistan hundreds of women, of all ages and in all parts of the country, are reported killed in the name of honour [ghairat]. Many more cases go unreported. Almost all go unpunished. The lives of millions of women in Pakistan are circumscribed by traditions which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men, many of whom impose their virtually proprietorial control over women with violence. For the most part, women bear traditional male control over every aspect of their bodies, speech and behaviour with stoicism, as part of their qismat [fate], but exposure to media, the work of women's rights groups and a greater degree of mobility have seen the beginnings of women's rights awareness seep into the secluded world of women. But if women begin to assert these rights, however tentatively, they often face more repression and punishment: the curve of honour killings has risen parallel to the rise in awareness of rights. State indifference, discriminatory laws and the gender bias of much of the country's police force and judiciary have ensured virtual impunity for perpetrators of honour killings.

In part B, this report describes the different facets of the phenomenon of honour killings in Pakistan. It looks at the traditions that form the framework of such killings, particularly the commodification of women and the notion of honour. It asserts that the notions of what defiles honour have continually widened beyond defiance of sexual norms to include other forms of perceived defiance of social norms by women. These include the desire of women to choose a marriage partner and to seek divorce. In a curious twist, women victims of rape are also seen to have defiled their male relatives' honour and some have been killed on that account. The report then describes how the lure of compensation and the lenient treatment of honour killings by courts have led to abuses of the system in which women are killed supposedly on grounds of honour but really for an ulterior purpose. It describes the limited options which are open to women who apprehend being killed for reasons of honour.

Abuses by private actors such as honour killings and physical injury of women are crimes under a country's criminal law. However, systematic failure by the state to prevent and to investigate them and to punish the perpetrators leads to international responsibility of the state. The report in part C summarizes the doctrines of international human rights law which establish state responsibility beyond acts of its agents to include abuses by private actors if the state has failed to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating and punishing them. Honour killings take place at an alarming rate in Pakistan and with virtual impunity.

The report points to the various areas in which the Pakistan government's failure to exercise due diligence is manifest, including the government's failure to respond to reports of honour killings and to amend overlapping and often contradictory legal regimes and discriminatory laws which prevent redress. It also looks at the gender bias shown by police and parts of the judiciary when dealing with crimes of honour. The report describes the limited reform moves undertaken by tribal leaders and ends in part D with a set of recommendations.

... 'Tradition' may have emphasised certain norms in the past, but this does not preclude tradition being shaped by new realities. This report shows how even the traditions of 'honour' in Pakistan, which are used to justify violence against women, have themselves undergone change, have broadened in concept and been debased and distorted by more generalized corruption and violence in society. It also highlights how the honour system derives from tribal traditions in Pakistan, which are often in conflict with other traditions in national life, such as Islam and liberal democracy; as a result women find themselves caught between competing and conflicting 'traditions' in Pakistan.

Both men and women have become victims of honour killings and of other forms of honour related violence -- but as the report indicates, girls and women have less chance to physically escape such killings and to socially redeem themselves by payment of compensation than men. Significantly, the men who are killed for reasons of honour are invariably targeted by the male relatives of the women whose alleged breach of the code of honour constitutes the rationale for such acts. This report therefore focuses on the violence suffered by women and girls while recognizing that men are sometimes its targets as well (AI-USA Sept. 1999 (a)).

The September 1999 AI report draws attention to the fact that the concept of family honour can vary according to circumstances as can the concept of what defiles it:

The perception of what defiles honour has become very loose. Male control extends not just to a woman's body and her sexual behaviour, but to all of her behaviour, including her movements and language. In any of these areas, defiance by women translates into undermining male honour. Severe punishments are reported for bringing food late, for answering back, for undertaking forbidden family visits. ... A man's ability to protect his honour is judged by his family and neighbours. He must publicly demonstrate his power to safeguard his honour by killing those who damaged it and restore it. Honour killings consequently are often performed openly (5).

Originally a Baluch and Pashtun tribal custom restricted to the tribal areas of Pakistan, honour killings are being carried out not only in Baluchistan, the NWFP and upper Sindh, but also in Punjab as well, and are being reported not only from the rural areas, but also from the urban areas (AI-USA Sept. 1999 (b); HRW Aug. 1999, 30). Amnesty International-USA reports that the executions of those who have stained the family honour varies from area to area: in Sindh, the kari ("black woman") and karo ("black man") are "more ritualistically killed and hacked to pieces, often in view of and with the implicit or explicit sanction of the community," whereas in Punjab, the guilty parties are usually shot and "appear more often based on individual decisions, occurring in an urban context and not always perpetrated in public" (AI-USA Sept. 1999 (b); AI Sept. 1999, 3).

An analysis of the 1998 honour killings in Sindh, compiled by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), also examined the relationship of the perpetrators of the honour killings and the victims: "the fact that male relatives of the women [killed] are so frequently perpetrators of the killings reflects the conviction that marriage and fidelity are not a matter between husband and wife but relate to the family and that a woman's assumed infidelity reflects on the honour of the entire family" (AI-USA Sept. 1999 (b)). A recent HRCP publication entitled The Dimensions of Violence, which chronicled cases of violence against women that were reported in Lahore's newspapers in 1999, corroborates this finding that male kin executed female relatives for tarnishing their family honour (Dawn 20 Jan. 2000). Of 675 women murdered in 1999, reported in Lahore's papers, 266 had been killed over family honour, and 241 had been killed after being "suspected as having either a bad character or a friendship/relationship" with another man" (ibid.). No more than 77 of the accused were arrested (ibid.).

In a March 1999 landmark decision, the UK House of Lords ruled that two women, who had fled to the UK after rumours of their alleged illicit affairs spread in Pakistan, had a well-founded fear of persecution based on membership in a particular social group, namely women, who experience discrimination and oppression because they occupy a lower status than men in Pakistan (AI-USA Sept. 1999 (b)). These women were granted refugee status in the UK (AI-USA Sept. 1999 (b)).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Amnesty International (AI). September 1999. Pakistan: Honour Killings of Girls and Women. (AI Index: ASA 33/18/99). London: AI.

Amnesty International-USA (AI-USA). September 1999. Pakistan: Violence Against Women in the Name of Honor. (AI Index: ASA 33/17/99). http://www.amnesty-usa.org [Accessed 12 June 2000]

Dawn [Karachi]. 20 January 2000. "HRCP Report: 266 'Honour-Killings', 163 'Stove-Deaths' Around Lahore Region." http://dawn.com [Accessed 20 Jan. 2000]

Human Rights Watch (HRW). August 1999. Crime or Custom? Violence Against Women in Pakistan. NY: HRW.

Asian Survey [Berkeley, Calif.]. Monthly. January 1998-December 1998.

_____. Bi-monthly. January/February 1999-November/December 1999.

The Herald [Karachi]. Monthly. January 1999-April 2000.

HRCP Newsletter [Lahore]. Quarterly. April 1998, July 1998, April 1999.

IRB Databases.

IWRAW: The Women's Watch. Infrequent reports. June 1998-April 2000.

WIN News [Lexington, Mass.]. Quarterly. Winter 1998-Winter 1999.

Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), Groebbels. Infrequent reports. June 1997-November 1999.

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