A young woman who marries for love, and not to the ubiquitous 'First Cousin' that all Asians seem to marry by arrangement (I don't know enough about genetics, but surely that must end up being dangerous after a few generations, with everyone related directly to each other, even when they are 'First Cousins'?), is murdered by her father and male relatives.
Sadly not actually a rare event, with several thousand young women killed for the sake of 'family honour' in Pakistan alone, and many many more across the sub continent.
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| Dis Honour Killings aka Bloody Murder |
Sadly not actually a rare event, with several thousand young women killed for the sake of 'family honour' in Pakistan alone, and many many more across the sub continent.
What made it news worthy amongst the non Urdu news outlets in Pakistan, was that it took place on the court steps in Lahore, and apparently in front of the police, who then stood by and did nothing while the young woman was brutally murdered over period of about 10 minutes. They only arrested the father well after the event and the other relatives who helped killed the woman, 'escaped' capture.
In a strange twist, the man the victim had married, Muhummad Iqbal, has now confessed that he also murdered his first wife by strangling her .... and escaped being imprisoned for this murder because he also used Islamic provisions of Pakistan's legal system to get her family to forgive him (usually for small amount of money), which is precisely the same laws as the father of his wife has claimed legalise the murder of Farzana Parveen.
As usual, belatedly, when film of the killing entered the Internet the Pakistani authorities suddenly acted, and now the President has ordered arrests be made .... although one suspects it doesn't matter too much who is arrested (a bit like the rapes in India .... of which there has been yet another horrific example this week) .... however what struck me most about this whole sad tale was the reporting by the BBC.
I don't understand why in the name of political correctness, the BBC insists on saying that these people are just 'very conservative'?
A religious 'conservative' is a shire Anglican going to Sunday worship ... not misogynist monsters, who think nothing of killing their own daughters for disobeying them, often under the guise of a justified murder aka Karo Kari. These same murders now happen in the UK as well, and from the same religious group, but we don't suddenly call them 'conservatives'.
The BBC should stand for some Western values in this matter, and call it for what it is, and not hide behind its PC skirts and try to bury the horror of the crimes in subliminally neutral language, that vaguely suggests no connection between the Sharia laws, or extreme misogynist cultures, the religions or the caste system, that are used to justify the killing of females.
Its not as though the BBC isn't quick to help attack those that it considers to be 'white' male misogynists in places like the English Premier League (where by the way, only feelings were hurt), by holding talk shows on Radio 4 and 5 on the subject, or even having a female BBC News Editor caught interfering in elections, to oppose "white middle class, middle aged men with sexist/racist views" ... but oddly, hardly anything on any of its channels (except maybe the website), about women being routinely gang raped or murdered in south Asian countries as punishment for 'honour crimes'.
Oh and just in case you have forgotten already, a Christian woman is to be murdered by the state in Sudan for marrying a Christian man ... is that not another form of state sponsored religious 'honour killing'?
One has to assume that its the colour of the skin that influences the BBC's responses. If "white middle class, middle aged men with sexist/racist views" do something reprehensible, like making poor taste jokes .... then one set of standards are applied and condemnatory coverage is wall to wall, but if brown, poor, and ill educated men rape, murder, and torture women, then the other set of standards are applied, and a muted 'news only' .... no comment kind of coverage is applied.
Quite shocking really, but sadly not really surprising ... The truth, and fairness, are always the victim when political correctness influences the editorial decisions of the media .... the BBC's non stop quest to pretend that the south Asian cultures imported into the UK, are not a threat to the women of the UK and the world, means that they now operate double reporting and commentating standards, depending upon the culture being reported on.
In a strange twist, the man the victim had married, Muhummad Iqbal, has now confessed that he also murdered his first wife by strangling her .... and escaped being imprisoned for this murder because he also used Islamic provisions of Pakistan's legal system to get her family to forgive him (usually for small amount of money), which is precisely the same laws as the father of his wife has claimed legalise the murder of Farzana Parveen.
As usual, belatedly, when film of the killing entered the Internet the Pakistani authorities suddenly acted, and now the President has ordered arrests be made .... although one suspects it doesn't matter too much who is arrested (a bit like the rapes in India .... of which there has been yet another horrific example this week) .... however what struck me most about this whole sad tale was the reporting by the BBC.
I don't understand why in the name of political correctness, the BBC insists on saying that these people are just 'very conservative'?
A religious 'conservative' is a shire Anglican going to Sunday worship ... not misogynist monsters, who think nothing of killing their own daughters for disobeying them, often under the guise of a justified murder aka Karo Kari. These same murders now happen in the UK as well, and from the same religious group, but we don't suddenly call them 'conservatives'.
The BBC should stand for some Western values in this matter, and call it for what it is, and not hide behind its PC skirts and try to bury the horror of the crimes in subliminally neutral language, that vaguely suggests no connection between the Sharia laws, or extreme misogynist cultures, the religions or the caste system, that are used to justify the killing of females.
Its not as though the BBC isn't quick to help attack those that it considers to be 'white' male misogynists in places like the English Premier League (where by the way, only feelings were hurt), by holding talk shows on Radio 4 and 5 on the subject, or even having a female BBC News Editor caught interfering in elections, to oppose "white middle class, middle aged men with sexist/racist views" ... but oddly, hardly anything on any of its channels (except maybe the website), about women being routinely gang raped or murdered in south Asian countries as punishment for 'honour crimes'.
Oh and just in case you have forgotten already, a Christian woman is to be murdered by the state in Sudan for marrying a Christian man ... is that not another form of state sponsored religious 'honour killing'?
One has to assume that its the colour of the skin that influences the BBC's responses. If "white middle class, middle aged men with sexist/racist views" do something reprehensible, like making poor taste jokes .... then one set of standards are applied and condemnatory coverage is wall to wall, but if brown, poor, and ill educated men rape, murder, and torture women, then the other set of standards are applied, and a muted 'news only' .... no comment kind of coverage is applied.
Quite shocking really, but sadly not really surprising ... The truth, and fairness, are always the victim when political correctness influences the editorial decisions of the media .... the BBC's non stop quest to pretend that the south Asian cultures imported into the UK, are not a threat to the women of the UK and the world, means that they now operate double reporting and commentating standards, depending upon the culture being reported on.
Excellent piece, well done for saying it like it is.
ReplyDeleteThanks ... just a pity that it is only bloggers (and small children looking at naked Emperors) who seem able to state the obvious these days. Maybe because we aren't selling anything, just giving our thoughts away for free.
DeleteWell one bit of good news (maybe) ... the Christian woman Meriam Ibrahim who was forced to have her child shackled, is to be freed after Sudan suddenly remembered that it has some old law lying about, gathering dust, that "guaranteed religious freedom" ... an under-secretary at the foreign ministry has announced she will be freed 'soon'.
ReplyDeleteThe bad publicity world wide has swayed the regime ... possibly.
That is excellent news, that's made my weekend ! Do you think I can get my £25 back from Change.org as 209 people no longer need to join their petition? Like Tommy Cooper said "it's not the principle, it's the money!"
DeleteWell as she isn't actually free yet .... I wouldn't act too quickly. In any event I am sure that they will use the money wisely.
DeleteAnd in case anyone thinks that I am over egging my argument. Just take a look at the BBC coverage of the double reporting and commentating standards, where Islamic / Muslim hard-liners have allegedly plotted to take over the governance of state secular schools and convert them into strict Muslim schools.
ReplyDeleteVirtually all the headlines and comment simply refers to all of this as 'extremism', or on the radio 'religious extremism'. Implying to the visitor from Mars, that its possibly all religions doing something wrong.
- Could it be Christian evangelists crusading through the schools, determined to produce warriors for god?
- Maybe its Buddhist Monks, shaving children's heads?
- Possibly Hindu's are making children worship statues of Kali?
- Or even Pagan's plotting to bring back The Old Ways
No, it's the religion, whose name the BBC struggles to deal with, attempting to subvert the very culture that allows the BBC to exist in all is multiculturalist madness, and whose very name it finds so hard to place in any negative story ... so in many of the reports on the scandal, the words Islam or Muslim are either non existent, or buried somewhere in the body of the text to neutralise its impact .... certainly not in the headlines.
All of this Multiculturalism nonsense makes an uncomfortable bedfellow with news reporting, as sub editors perform linguistic gymnastics to try and actually insert the real story into its wrapper of dissemination.
I repeat The truth, and fairness, are always the victim when political correctness influences the editorial decisions of the media .... the BBC's non stop quest to pretend that the south Asian cultures imported into the UK, are not a threat to the women of the UK and the world, means that they now operate double reporting and commentating standards depending upon the culture being reported on.