A Pakistani court sentenced four men to death Wednesday for the murder of a female relative in what the murderers considered an “honor killing.”
The crime was well-documented: The victim, Farzana Iqbal, was beaten to death outside a courthouse where she tried to seek protection from her relatives, who were angered that she had married a man against their wishes.
Her husband tried in vain to get nearby police to intervene.
The revelation that Iqbal’s husband had killed his first wife to marry her only added to the case’s notoriety.
But what has made Iqbal’s case truly remarkable is the sentence, said human rights activists, who noted that the murders of hundreds of women go unpunished every year in Pakistan.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country’s largest independently run rights group, more than 900 women were killed for honor in 2011. The Aurat Foundation, a women’s rights group, said more than 3,000 people have been killed for “honor” in Pakistan since 2008.
