Pregnant Woman Stoned to Death By Her Family After Refusing Arranged Marriage

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 27, 2014   |   2:56PM   |   Lahore, Pakistan

A pregnant woman has been stoned to death by her family in Pakistan after refusing an arranged marriage and marrying the man she loved, who was the father of her unborn child.

Certain areas of the world have a high number of so-called “honor killings,” done when a member of a family or social group by other members kill someone in that family or social group because of the perpetrators’ belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family or community. These are often done for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being in a relationship that is disapproved by their relatives, having sex outside marriage, becoming the victim of rape or other reasons.

honorkillingIn this case in Pakistan, the honor killing claimed a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.

The woman Farzana Parveen, 25, was stoned to death Tuesday by her own family outside a courthouse in the Pakistani city of Lahore. She was on the way to court, which was holding a hearing on an abduction charge her family filed against her husband Mohammad Iqbal, 45, (pictured right in an ambulance with Parveen’s body) who she had married of her own free will.

After the killing, her father was promptly arrested on murder charges and AP reports that police investigator Rana Mujahid said officials were arresting those responsible for the “heinous crime.”

From the story:

Tuesday’s attack took place in front of a crowd of onlookers in broad daylight. The courthouse is located on a main downtown thoroughfare.

honorkilling2Her father, Mohammad Azeem, had filed an abduction case against Iqbal, which the couple was contesting, said her lawyer, Mustafa Kharal. He said she was three months pregnant.

Nearly 20 members of Parveen’s extended family, including her father and brothers, had waited outside the building that houses the high court of Lahore. As the couple walked up to the main gate, the relatives fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from Iqbal, her lawyer said.

When she resisted, her father, brothers and other relatives started beating her, eventually pelting her with bricks from a nearby construction site, according to Mujahid and Iqbal, the slain woman’s husband.

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Iqbal said he started seeing Parveen after the death of his first wife, with whom he had five children.

“We were in love,” he told The Associated Press. He alleged that the woman’s family wanted to fleece money from him before marrying her off.

“I simply took her to court and registered a marriage,” infuriating the family, he said.

Parveen’s father surrendered after the attack and called his daughter’s murder an “honor killing,” Butt said.

“I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it,” Mujahid, the police investigator, quoted the father as saying.