Not that kind. If only.
This is the story of a 25 year-old woman who was three months pregnant being stoned to death by her own family for marrying someone without consent from her father.
Pregnant Pakistani Woman Stoned to Death by Family
Particularly chilling is her father’s admission upon arrest for the killing:
Parveen’s father surrendered after the attack and called his daughter’s murder an “honor killing,” Butt said.
“I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it,” Mujahid, the police investigator, quoted the father as saying.
This is the 21st century, people. Her family, upon being rebuffed at the courthouse steps, fired shots, then beat her with their fists, then picked up bricks from a nearby construction site and pummeled her to death with them.
Why? Because she was a possession to be bartered. Her husband did not pay her family for her. I’m sure her father could have gotten a handsome price for her. Unbelievable!
Even in societies where children and wives are considered property one would think that they would be valued as prized possessions, not disposable goods.
Out From Under the Umbrella 
May 27, 2014 at 3:38 pm
Ruth, thanks for bringing this to light. I recently signed a petition (which i posted on Twitter) asking the government of Sudan to not stone a pregnant woman for marrying a Christian. I got an update email today.
“27 May 2014 — Thank you so much for signing the petition to #saveMariam. This morning Mariam gave birth in prison to a baby girl. Her husband has not yet been allowed to visit Mariam and her newborn baby. Her young son also remains with her in prison. Media reports (http://yhoo.it/1nsb5Z6) state that she will be able to nurse her baby for two years before the death sentence is carried out. Please continue to sign and share the petition. Ask your friends to sign at: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/government-of-sudan-don-t-execute-mariam-yehya-ibrahim-for-being-christian-savemariam . Mariam’s 20 month old son and new born daughter need their mum. Thank you.”
Rather disgusting and leaves a stench in my nostrils that this inhumane behavior has been allowed to go on for so long. It’s nearly always women who bring awareness about this, and create these petitions. There is so much apathy when it comes to this. People turn a blind eye all the time. 😦
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May 27, 2014 at 4:22 pm
I haven’t signed that petition. I’ll go over and do that shortly, but I was wondering: will people signing a petition have any affect on the government of Sudan? What will this accomplish exactly? Doesn’t the government of Sudan know what the Western World thinks of this barbaric and archaic practice?
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May 27, 2014 at 4:55 pm
You raise a good question, but I have been signing these types of petitions for several years, and there has been good progress. What happens is that they end up getting world exposure, and there has been success because of it. One such case was a woman in Saudi Arabia who was sent to prison and threatened with 180 lashes for driving a car. Saudi women bravely created a petition (could also landed them in prison or death for protesting) and because it got world exposure she was released. As I mentioned, the key to these petitions is social media/world exposure.
In a TED talk she says:
“But you learn lessons from these things that happen to you. I learned to be always there. The first thing, I got out of jail, of course after I took a shower, I went online, I opened my Twitter account and my Facebook page, and I’ve been always very respectful to those people who are opining to me. I would listen to what they say, and I would never defend myself with words only. I would use actions. When they said I should withdraw from the campaign, I filed the first lawsuit against the general directorate of traffic police for not issuing me a driver’s license.
There are a lot of people also — very big support, like those 3,000 people who signed the petition to release me. We sent a petition to the Shura Council in favor of lifting the ban on Saudi women, and there were, like, 3,500 citizens who believed in that and they signed that petition. There were people like that, I just showed some examples, who are amazing, who are believing in women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, and trying, and they are also facing a lot of hate because of speaking up and voicing their views.
Saudi Arabia today is taking small steps toward enhancing women’s rights. The Shura Council that’s appointed by the king, by royal decree of King Abdullah, last year there were 30 women assigned to that Council, like 20 percent. 20 percent of the Council. The same time, finally, that Council, after rejecting our petition four times for women driving, they finally accepted it last February.”
—-
Thank you for signing the petition.
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May 27, 2014 at 3:51 pm
This is so sick.
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May 27, 2014 at 4:23 pm
Indeed. It’s just so hard for me to believe that this still goes on. I just cannot fathom how a person could do this to their own child for…any reason.
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May 30, 2014 at 12:37 pm
Exactly.
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May 27, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Sick and sad. When I arrived in Jaisalmer (right on the Indian/Pakistan) border there had been an honour killing the day before in the street i was staying. There must have been 100 women mourning outside her house when i passed by. She’d been dowsed in petrol by her husband and set alight. It’s simply unfathomable.
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May 27, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Clearly they pick the most painful, most horrific, means available. Can you imagine being burned alive? And for what?
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May 27, 2014 at 5:27 pm
Usually the most ridiculous things, not that anything should be justification for murdering someone.
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May 27, 2014 at 4:29 pm
Monstrous. A woman is dead because these barbaric, misogynist values still exist. Honor killings need to stop!
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May 27, 2014 at 4:39 pm
What kind of person can stone their own child to death and then say they have no regrets about doing it?
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May 27, 2014 at 6:20 pm
What kind of father crucifies his son/himself and has no regrets about doing it?
When we consider that “God” prepared an eternity in hell for those who do not obey, it’s not much of a stretch for humans to slaughter one another. If their “God” can do it so can they. 😦
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May 27, 2014 at 6:29 pm
Quite astute, Zoe. Invent god and get away with murder.
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May 28, 2014 at 8:18 am
Quite right, Zoe. Even OT God regretted drowning everybody. Yet he doesn’t give a second thought to burning them forever.
I still think it takes a special kind of cold-heartedness to forget your own humanity and pummel someone…anyone to the death. What horrific thing to have participated in. When I read or hear or see things like this I can’t help but ruminate on the stones hitting flesh. The gruesomeness of it. I just don’t get it.
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May 28, 2014 at 9:52 am
Me either Ruth. They kill because they have been shamed yet they have no shame in killing and for some reason they think that the killing erases the shame and they regain their honour.
I watched a video several months ago. A tribe (I believe it was in South America) commonly kills their young and by young I mean not just infants or toddlers if they (the family) deem them a burden. I won’t go into details. I was traumatized by it but when I watched the boy carried to his death cry out to his father to not do it and the brother’s older brother plead with the father and offer to take care of the boy for the rest of his life, it was sickening.
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May 27, 2014 at 5:21 pm
Is there ever a good religion? Hmm….
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May 28, 2014 at 8:25 am
I see you’ve gotten no reply…
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May 28, 2014 at 8:36 am
Did you think I would? lol….
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May 28, 2014 at 8:42 am
😀
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May 28, 2014 at 8:57 am
The sound of crickets chirping is rather relaxing, no?
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May 28, 2014 at 8:58 am
For sure…
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May 28, 2014 at 12:46 am
‘She insulted the family’ – such monsters! She was 25 years old and didn’t need their permission to do anything. I hope they hang the whole lot of them – in public!
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May 28, 2014 at 8:19 am
Apparently, in Pakistan and under Islamic law, an unmarried woman still needs permission from her father to do most anything – no matter her age. Un-flippin’-believable!
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May 29, 2014 at 1:49 am
That sucks! Those people need to wake up and get a life!
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May 29, 2014 at 7:00 am
They only life they deserve is one that prevents them from doing further harm to others. Due to their antisocial indoctrination, they have become a cancer to the body of humanity.
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May 29, 2014 at 12:43 pm
I should have said ‘death’ then. 😀
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May 28, 2014 at 1:16 am
I saw this and I asked myself what is wrong with some people
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May 28, 2014 at 8:20 am
I think they’re missing that part of their brain that empathizes. It’s been completely re-wired or switched off.
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May 28, 2014 at 9:46 am
Or it was destroyed whilst they were babies
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May 28, 2014 at 9:22 am
This is just so irritatingly sad and unnecessary. There aren’t words to describe how sad this really is. And religious people are supposed to be the “light of the world”. I think unfortunately the batteries run out way too often on their flashlights.
Thanks for the link Victoria – I went and signed the petition.
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May 28, 2014 at 9:43 am
Thank you, Howie. Just think about it — this inhumane behavior has been going on for hundreds (thousands?) of years — and our species has traditionally turned a blind eye. Why? Because culture (religion) takes priority over human rights.
“And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.” (Leviticus 21:9)
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May 28, 2014 at 11:48 am
It’s very hard to believe this kind of thing still happens, just horrible.
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