Burying of women alive defended in Senate

[ccharles000]

By Ahmed Hassan

ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Balochistan Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri stunned the upper house on Friday when he defended the recent incident of burying alive three teenage girls and two women in his province, saying it was part of “our tribal custom.”

Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah of the PML-Q raised the issue citing a newspaper report that the girls, three of them aged between 16 and 18 years, had been buried alive a month ago for wishing to marry of their own will.

The barbaric incident took place in a remote village of Jafarabad district and a PPP minister and some other influential people were reported to have been involved. The report accused the provincial government of trying to hush up the issue.

Ms Shah said that the hapless girls and the women were first shot in the name of honour and then buried while they were alive. She also said that no criminal had been arrested so far.

Acting Chairman of Senate Jan Mohammad Jamali, who was presiding over the session, said: “Yasmin Shah should go to our society and see for herself what the situation is like there and then come back to raise such questions in the house.”

Maulana Ghafoor Haideri of the JUI-F said there was no tradition of burying women alive in Baloch society because it was against Islam’s teachings.

Jamal Leghari of PML-Q emphatically stated that there was no custom of burying people alive, adding that the Baloch people did not believe in it.

Senator Jan Jamali commented: “This is a provincial matter and it is being investigated at the provincial level and let us wait for the report of the investigation.” Leader of the Opposition Kamil Ali Agha accused the Balochistan government of ignoring the incident and said no jirga could order the burying of women alive and no law allowed anyone to commit such a crime and go unpunished. He urged the government to punish the people involved in it.

Leader of the House Mian Raza Rabbani said: “We condemn the heinous act and assure the house that a complete report on the incident would be submitted on Monday.”

http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/30/top4.htm

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. I'd like to see the cultural relativists on DU try to defend this.

:puke:

:cry:

[EFerrari]

5. I'm probably one of those but my first thought was how much are we giving

to Pakistan in tax money that supports this murder.

[barbtries]

7. i can't.

i can see chinese people eating dogs, but i just can't see people killing people. it's wrong. it was always wrong it will always be wrong. this story hurts.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Oh, it's a provincial matter, alright. That's the understatement of the year.

[magellan]

3. I was sure this was going to be a US story

...and the Senator would be a Repub.

[JonQ]

4. In the west we once burned witches

condemning however many innocent people to death, without a real trial, in a particularly horrific manner. I doubt anyone today would defend those actions as "cultural" or "customs". And yet there will be people to defend, or at least justify, these tribesmen as merely following their customs, that we have no right to judge them or attempt to get them to change their ways.

You can't hide acts of barbarism under the guise of "culture", or at least you shouldn't be able to.

[ccharles000]

6. I agree.

[LeftishBrit]

8. Evil and horrific

All 'honour killings' are evil

www.stophonorkillings.com

but *burying people alive*? I can't believe it's part of anyone's tribal customs; and if it, then it's a custom that needs to be changed yesterday.

Sick!!!!!

[bertman]

9. I say we invade those MF's and turn 'um into Christians. Oh, wait. They're our ALLIES.