In Iran, a father who killed his 14-year-old daughter in 2020 got nine years: fathers escape the death penalty. In Pakistan, the brother who strangled Qandeel Baloch walked free in 2022 after their parents pardoned him. This category covers violence by relatives in the name of "honour". No verse orders it, but the texts frame it. The Quran lets the victim's heir demand retaliation or pardon (2:178, 17:33): the family can pardon itself. Citing a hadith (Tirmidhi 1400), most schools also exempt the father. The Prophet praised the jealousy of Sa'd, ready to kill his wife's lover (Bukhari 6846), and Allah will not look at the dayyuth, the man who tolerates indecency in his family (Nasa'i 2562). Where these rules become law, the family kills and the family pardons.
In October, a 13-year-old was shot seven times by her cousin for going out without a veil, a divorced woman was stabbed in her family’s cattle pen, and a couple who had married by choice were gunned down on a bus. Police treated all three as killings in the name of honour, a crime for which Pakistani law has promised at least life imprisonment since 2016.
Newsletter
Sign up for the Delirium Islamicum newsletter: our new articles, straight to your inbox.
Our partners
