The Media’s Ignorance Towards Violence Against Women & Honor Killings
Violence against women and female children is a “century-old tradition” and while more and more cases of violence against women in Pakistan turn up, the media is remaining ignorant to the fact that this type of violence does exist. When the media will report endlessly about the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan but so few media outlets report about five women being buried alive, something is terribly wrong.
The media’s ignorance towards violence against women in the world makes you wonder about people who gain much of their knowledge from the media. Why is there no international outrage? The sad truth of the matter is that honor killings and international violence against women does not get much coverage at all and because of that, most people do not know what is going on and what is happening to so many women in Pakistan who are victims of honor killings. While it is a rising pandemic it is also an isolated, household tradition.
Five women in Pakistan were buried alive by tribesmen in the same week that Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan. The crime that these women committed was wanting to choose their own husbands. They defied tribal elders and arranged marriages to men of their own choosing in a civil court. Because of this, these women were abducted at gunpoint by some men and dragged off to a remote field, where they were beaten, shot, thrown into a ditch, and then, while still breathing, smothered to death with rocks and mud.
A member of the Pakistani parliament, Israr Ullah Zehri, said that these killings were merely “century-old traditions” and that they are necessary to stop obscenity. The media also did not deem this condoning of barbaric violence against women important and failed to report anything about it. Because of this, the media is also condoning violence against women and honor killings.
It’s high time that we change the shameful fact that when it comes to barbarity against members of the female half of humanity, the silence of not only the press but also of political, religious and other leaders is almost deafening.
Women’s organizations nationally and internationally have for years struggled to change this, and gradually human rights organizations have paid more attention to the pandemic of violence against women. But men — and particularly men who identify themselves as moral leaders — must also raise their voices. They too must voice their outrage about their “brothers” all over the world who are brutalizing women.
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