The image above shows the body of a pakistani woman stoned to death by her own family for marrying the man she loved against their will in what is commonly referred to as 'honour killings'.
We have been constantly updated by the media in recent months, of the unthinkable discrimination and marginalization being faced by women in certain parts of the world. Two months ago, it was the kidnapping of hundreds of girls in Northern Nigeria by the radical islamist group Boko Haram. These innocent girls were taken from their boarding school and have been in the custody of the radical group for more than two months now. And why were they kidnapped, because the were being educated western-style, which to Boko Haram is a double crime - Boko Haram stands for 'western education is evil' in the local hausa language, which means anybody receiving western education is a criminal (Crime 1), and secondly, the hardcore sharia law which Boko Haram seeks to implement does not seem to accept any form of education for women, which means any female being educated is going against the law (Crime 2).
We have also been told of the pregnant sudanese woman, Meriam Ibrahim, given 100 lashes publicly in the sudanese capital Khartoum, and later sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of adultery and apostacy by a radical Islamic court. Her real crime, marrying a christian, one of which she is. Her father was a muslim, but he abandoned her with her mother, who raised her as a christian. She was jailed when her half-brother filed a complaint against her, and eventually led to criminal charges being filed against her. Her appeal was rejected, and she eventually gave birth to her second child in jail. Her case has sparked an international outcry and much fury against the sudanese justice system. Meriam's lawyers have also filed an appeal with the African Commission, which has no jurisdiction over Sudan. Sudanese leaders had hinted she might be freed, but most recently, they seem to have changed their minds about letting her go.
In Pakistan, a pregnat woman was beaten and stoned to death by members of her own family for marrying the man she love, against their will.. Farzana Parveen, 25, had married Mohammad Iqbal after being engaged to him for years, aginst the wishes of her family. This eventually led to her father filing abduction charges against Iqbal, which the couple was planning to challenge in the courts. The so-called 'honour killings' are very common in Pkistan and the entire Middle East. A Human Rights group operating in Pakistan reports that 869 women were murdered in 'honour killings' in Pakistan in 2013.
The incident all began when one of Parveen's brothers tried to shoot her, and then a crowd of family members, himself included attacked her with sticks and battons, while her father merely stood by and watched, probably with delight.
All this happened just in front of a pakistani High Court, and no one cared to do anything about it, not any of the people in the busy Lahore court premises, not even the policemen guarding the court. Some reports say, the police just stood watching, and her attackers escaped. Only her unappologetic father was arrested.
Apart from the most conservative islamic countries, India is probably the country with the highest rate of brutality against women. Rape and murder of women has become more of an epidemic. First was the 2012 Delhi Gang Rape where a psychotherapy intern was beaten and brutally gang raped in a private bus in which she was travelling with a male friend. The crime spread anger and anguish across the country and across the globe. The woman died thirteen days later of her wounds, while undergoing emergency surgery in Singapore.
In January of this year, a 51-year-old Danish tourist was robbed, beaten and gang raped after she asked for directions. This all happened in the afternoon while she was returning from India's National Museum on foot. Still in January, a tribal leader in east India told a group of 13 young men "go enjoy yourselves," as a young woman accused of having an affair with a muslim was about to be tied to a tree. The 20-year-old woman was 'sentenced to gang rape' by the village court, which left her in intensive care.
The situation in India has gone so out of control, that a woman was raped in a police station by four police officers a few days ago after failing to pay a bribe to secure the release of her husband.
In the past two weeks, three women have been raped and hanged in India. This leaves us asking a number of questions: Why has this been going on for so long? What are the authorities doing about it?
The world seems to have turned a blind eye to the plight of women in many parts of the world. You may think that because such stories cause an uproar on social media, it means the situation is being dealt with by governments, you may be wrong. If that were the case, such a horrible incident as the 2012 Delhi gang rape would not have repeated itself in 2014.
So here's my view: We can't change entire cultures at a go, but there are things we can do. In the Arab World for example where religious clerics are extremely influential, they create the mindsets of those they teach, and those they teach accept what these clmerics say as gospel truth. If we can get these clerics to be more modern and less radicalised, while still having their religion. A point in case is Saudi Arabia, where muslim clerics were very instrumental in enforcing the ban on driving for women, and 25 public lashes for an woman who does. These clerics exert enormous influence on lawmakers, so if we can get them to add a modern twist to tradition, it would do much good.
In a country like India were a huge number of lawmakers are convicts, it is more difficult. This is one of the cases where international sanctions or restrictions may be needed, to force the government to protect its citizens.
