Honour Crimes Dress code for women Ban on school education for women Extramarital sexual relations Violation of women's rights Domestic violence

Pakistan: Honour Among Heirs

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.

By Delirium Islamicum Published October 30, 2026

Satirical cartoon: a Pakistani family of men in shalwar kameez poses for a formal portrait, each hiding a pistol, a knife or a shotgun behind his back; beside the seated patriarch, an empty chair holds a folded pink dupatta above a pair of women’s sandals; a framed pardon with a red seal hangs on the wall, and a Pakistani judge takes the photo with a thumbs up. — Family portrait, Pakistan: the heirs have forgiven themselves.

Seven bullets for an uncovered head

On October 15, around 4 p.m., a 13-year-old girl was walking a few steps ahead of her parents to a grocery shop in a crowded market in Mianwali, in Punjab. Her cousin, 16, stepped in front of her, taunted her for going out without a veil, then fired seven shots from a .30 pistol, according to the complaint filed by her father. She died of her wounds. The father says the boy, his nephew and next-door neighbour, had often forbidden her to leave the house uncovered, and that she refused. Police arrested the cousin within 24 hours and charged him with murder and with murder in the name of honour.

The father told BBC Urdu he had wanted his daughter to study, but took her out of school in fifth grade under pressure from relatives. The boy, he says, kept stirring up trouble over the veil and the burqa in his own family, to the dismay of his four sisters. He himself is still at school, in ninth grade.

Called to the cattle pen

In Vehari, also in Punjab, Saba Bibi, 21, divorced a year earlier, lived with her parents, who suspected her of having a relationship with a man. One night in the second week of October, her father called her to the cattle pen behind the house, where relatives were waiting, and her brother-in-law stabbed her several times, according to the police. She died on the way to hospital or during treatment, depending on the account.

"Kill this shameless girl today. She has made a funeral of our honour."— Words attributed to her attackers in the police complaint, Vehari, October 2026

Her legal heirs did not want a case registered, the police said, so her maternal uncle filed the complaint. It names her father, two paternal uncles, a cousin and the brother-in-law, along with two unidentified men.

Talaq, iddat, nikah, shotgun

Sidra Samejo, a mother of four, did everything by the book. Her first husband, who she says mistreated her, divorced her in September 2024 by pronouncing the triple talaq in front of witnesses. She observed the waiting period, resisted relatives who wanted to marry her off to another man, and on April 25, 2026, married the man of her choice, Deedar. On September 28, she signed an affidavit declaring the marriage voluntary and saying she feared threats from her relatives, including her former husband. On October 22, Sidra Samejo and Deedar Sheikh were shot dead in a passenger coach on the National Highway near Sukkur, in Sindh, on their way to Karachi. Police arrested two suspects with a repeater shotgun and described the killings as committed in the name of honour.

The family forgives the family

Since 1990, Pakistan's penal code has dealt with murder through the Qisas and Diyat provisions, introduced to bring the law in line with the Quran and the Sunnah. They let the victim's legal heirs forgive the killer or settle for blood money, at any stage of the trial. In an honour killing, those heirs are often the killer's own relatives. A 2016 amendment was meant to close the loophole: the heirs can no longer end the case by forgiving, and the killer still faces life imprisonment, provided the court accepts that honour was the motive. Otherwise, the case is tried as an ordinary murder, open to compromise.

The toll keeps rising. HRCP, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, counted at least 405 women killed in the name of honour in 2024 and 470 in 2025. Pakistan's human rights minister told the National Assembly that 1,553 women had been killed in the name of honour between 2021 and 2024. For the first half of 2025, the Sustainable Social Development Organisation counted 372 registered cases and not a single conviction.

In Pakistan, the family that may forgive the killer is often the family that decided she had to die.

Verses and hadiths related to this article

“And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and not to reveal their adornments except what normally appears. Let them draw their veils over their chests, and not reveal their hidden adornments except to their husbands, their fathers, their fathers-in-law, their sons, their stepsons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, their fellow women, those bondwomen in their possession, male attendants with no desire, or children who are still unaware of women’s nakedness. Let them not stomp their feet, drawing attention to their hidden adornments. Turn to Allah in repentance all together, O believers, so that you may be successful.”

Narrated Al-Mughira: Sa`d bin Ubada said, “If I found a man with my wife, I would kill him with the sharp side of my sword.” When the Prophet (ﷺ) heard that he said, “Do you wonder at Sa`d's sense of ghira (self-respect)? Verily, I have more sense of ghira than Sa`d, and Allah has more sense of ghira than I.”

“As for those of your women who commit illegal intercourse—call four witnesses from among yourselves. If they testify, confine the offenders to their homes until they die or Allah ordains a different way for them.”

“Ibn 'Abbas (Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) as saying: A woman without a husband has more right to her person than her guardian, and a virgin's consent must be asked from her, and her silence implies her consent.”

“Do not take a human life, made sacred by Allah, except with legal right. If anyone is killed unjustly, We have given their heirs the authority, but do not let them exceed limits in retaliation, for they are already supported by law.”

“O you who believe, retaliation is prescribed for you in cases of murder: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the female for the female. But if the killer is granted some pardon by his brother, let the claim be pursued with fairness, and let payment [of blood money] be made to him with kindness. That is a lightening from your Lord and a mercy. Whoever transgresses after that will have a painful punishment.”

Narrated Abu Huraira: In the year of the Conquest of Mecca, the tribe of Khuza`a killed a man from the tribe of Bani Laith in revenge for a killed person belonging to them in the Pre-Islamic Period of Ignorance. So Allah's Apostle got up saying, "Allah held back the (army having) elephants from Mecca, but He let His Apostle and the believers overpower the infidels (of Mecca). Beware! (Mecca is a sanctuary)! Verily! Fighting in Mecca was not permitted for anybody before me, nor will it be permitted for anybody after me; It was permitted for me only for a while (an hour or so) of that day. No doubt! It is at this moment a sanctuary; its thorny shrubs should not be uprooted; its trees should not be cut down; and its Luqata (fallen things) should not be picked up except by the one who would look for its owner. And if somebody is killed, his closest relative has the right to choose one of two things, i.e., either the Blood money or retaliation by having the killer killed." Then a man from Yemen, called Abu Shah, stood up and said, "(Write that) for me, O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)!" Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said (to his companions), "Write that for Abu Shah." Then another man from Quraish got up, saying, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Except Al-Idhkhir (a special kind of grass) as we use it in our houses and for graves." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Except Al-Idhkhir."