UPDATE:Pakistani Jirga Sentences 6 To Death For Dancing Together At Wedding

Adultery isn't the only thing that can get you executed in certain backwoods, rural areas of countries like Pakistan. Nope, mixing with members of the opposite gender can get you sentenced to death, as well- as in the case of six people in Kohistan, Pakistan who were videotaped dancing and singing together at a wedding. Apparently they consider people like that Ghul (fornicators). No wonder Pakistan is ranked #1 in Google's search for 'sex'.

The four women and two men were found guilty of “disrespecting gender segregation customs" at a wedding, by a local jirga (tribal assembly of elders). Although the women are married, the two men they were dancing and singing with are not blood-relatives (mahrams), which is a no-no in Islam. I'm not sure how you can expect to segregate genders at a wedding, but I assume they somehow manage.

Someone at the wedding, two months ago, taped the festivities on their cell phone and then forwarded the footage to the families of the women. The oldest brother of the two accused men, Muhammad Afzal said,

“The jirga did not bother to hear the ‘accused’ and condemned them to death,”  

The jirga obviously knows what they are doing is wrong because they have raised Rs400,00 in case they're sued.

They have also rounded up 40 young men to execute the condemned six. The men are supposed to be shot first, which might be difficult since they happened to escape. The women, on the other hand, were shipped back from their in-laws to their parents' village, and according to Afzal,

“They are tied with ropes. They are being starved.”

Afzal also believes the tape could be bogus since it doesn't really show them dancing together, and he has enemies.

“Since our family is affluent and owns vast acres of forestland, orchards and agriculture farms in Bando Baidar village. They (our rivals) hatched a plot to deprive us of our property."

Abdul Majeed Afridi, the district police officer, agrees with Afzal. The background where the women are singing folk songs is not the same as where the men are seen dancing.
In the meantime, the authorities are doing what they can to make sure the women are not harmed, although there is a discrepancy as to whether the women are safe or not.

“We have detained eight people (from the women’s tribe). And they have given us a written guarantee that the women would not be harmed,” Hazara Division Commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai told The Express Tribune.

The commissioner claimed that the women were safe at the homes of their parents in Seertaiy village. He also confirmed that the condemned men have fled their village.

The local police chief said that a police party, headed by a deputy superintendent police, has been sent to Seertaiy village to recover the girls who, The Express Tribune reported, were locked in a room and were being starved.

Abdul Majeed Afridi, the district police officer, also endorsed Umerzai’s claimed that “the women are safe in their parents’ homes”.

Why the jirgas are still allowed to exist in 21st century Pakistan, is shameful. Various rights organizations in Pakistan are demanding the end to jirgas. Good luck with that. As Pakistan becomes more Talibanized, it will only get worse.

UPDATE 6/4/12  Some bizarre, conflicting reports have emerged regarding this whole incident. According to the Pakistani news site Dawn, Afzal recently contacted journalists notifying them that the women had been killed by family members on May 30. On the other hand, police officials claim they have arrested four people, Afzal, his two brothers, and the man who videotaped the incident. They also say that no such jirga took place, and that the women are alive and well. Afzal has demanded that if the women are alive, they should bring them forth. So, who knows where the truth lies.

Money The Root Of All Jihad: Khalil Dale Beheaded For Not Paying Ransom

For all their claims that their holy jihad is against foreign invaders, most Islamist extremists are nothing more than low down, barbaric, common criminals. Supposed holy warriors don't attack innocents, they don't attack people who are in their country to help, and they certainly don't kill someone because a ransom wasn't paid. But it happens alot. 

Ironically, the kidnapped Scottish Red Cross nurse who was found decapitated, dumped by the side of a Quetta, Pakistan road covered in plastic with a note attached saying “This is the body of Khalil who we have slaughtered for not paying a ransom amount” was a Muslim convert. 60-year-old Khalil Rasjed Dale (fka Ken) converted to Islam 30 years ago.  I wonder if he ever envisioned having his head chopped off by fellow believers?

Dale had been working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when he was kidnapped on January 5th. He was driving with two others, a Pakistani doctor and a driver, but there was no interest in those two because obviously there was no monetary gain to be had. Foreign aid workers are often targets because they are potential cash cows. 

In spite of  "tireless efforts" to gain Dale's release by the British government (working in tandem with the ICRC), the fact that no money exchanged hands effectively secured his death sentence. Both Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague and the ICRC's Director General Yves Daccord condemned the act:

“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act. All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil’s family and friends.”

“This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Dale,” Hague said in the statement.

Dale had been shot and beheaded, but who knows if he was still alive when they sliced his head off.  According to Safdar Hussain,the doctor who examined his body, “A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body.”  Not surprisingly, there's a video of his beheading that the butchers have threatened to release, but the ICRC has asked the Pakistani  media to not air it. Who knows if they will comply. 

It's time aid organizations pull out of that whole region.


Sources: Guardian UK, Al Arabiya, Daily Mail

Four Pakistanis Including A Child Burned In Acid Attack

Some people in Pakistan don't sue to get back at folks they've had problems with. Nope, no Judge Judy for them,  they just use the weapon of choice in that region- acid. Because acid will make the lives of their adversaries a living hell. 

And they certainly don't care if the victims are women or children, as evidenced in the latest case near Lahore:

Four people, including two women and a child, were burnt in an acid attack over an enmity near Taunsa bypass on Sunday, say Sadar policeTwo assailants threw the deadly liquid on Nawaz, Hajra Bibi, Nusrat Bibi and Wasim who were going on a motorcycle.

The police said Aslam and his accomplice threw acid on them and fled the scene.

An onlooker called Rescue 1122 officials who shifted the acid attack victims to Dera District Headquarters Hospital.

Sadar Station House Officer Javed said the incident was the result of an old enmity.

Just easier to maim them for the rest of their lives.

90-Year-Old Pakistani Woman Burns Her Daughter-In-Law Alive

People often talk about troubles with their mother-in-laws. It's hard enough dealing with some in-laws, but when you have to live with them (like many young couples do in places like Pakistan) it can be even more challenging.

25-year-old Sobia Bibi (mother of one child) got along well with her husband, but she often argued with his family.  It probably didn't help matters that he was off working in Karachi while she lived with the family in a small village near Lahore.  So on March 27, after some disagreement, Bibi's 90-year-old mother-in-law and several members of Bibi's husband's family burned her alive, as she was watching television.  Al-Arabiya doesn't mention if the house burned down, as well.

According to Sub-Inspector Muhammad Hussain, ' a case had been registered against four people', including the mother-in-law who was suspected of being inolved.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing is not an isolated incident.  Daughter-in-laws, and women in general, are as disposable as diapers in that region.

Afghan Woman Executed Over "Illicit Relationship", Man Goes Free

The latest from Afghanistan.

The information on Khaama Press is a little sketchy, but it seems a man and a woman were caught having an "illicit relationship", which in Afghanistan more than likely means they were not married- the woman was sentenced to death by tribal elders with the approval of her two brothers, and was subsequently executed within days. What happened to the man she was involved with? Nothing, apparently.  He had been jailed in Kabul but then released. Whether he was jailed because of the relationship or for unrelated matters is unclear. The point is- he's still alive, and she's dead.

Paktia province, where this occurred, is located in eastern Afghanistan, parts of which are still riddled with Taliban.  According to  the local police chief, Zalmai Oryakhel, her two brothers were arrested for being complicit, and he has no clue why her lover was freed.  He also claims the woman's killers have disappeared. Not surprising really,  since it's women who suffer the most under Shariah law. 

Although human rights activists in the region have condemned the execution, and urged Paktia authorities to investigate the matter, but it's unlikely anything will be done.  It was just a woman, after all.

Young Afghan Boy and Girl Killed After Acid Attack, No-One Claims Bodies

Here's another example of how religion and a twisted sense of honor is more important than the value of a life, or in this case, the lives of two young children. Dumped in the middle of nowhere, after being burned by acid, for unknown reasons.

Two children, unceremoniously dumped in the middle of nowhere.

GHAZNI: A 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy have been killed in an acid attack in Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday, with witnesses claiming it was because of their friendship in what is an ultra-conservative country.


The bodies were discovered on Friday in wasteland in the Esfandi area of Ghazni province in south central Afghanistan, provincial police chief Zorawar Zahid told AFP.


“Their bodies and faces were burnt by acid,” he said.


The police chief said officers were investigating the motive for the attack, but witnesses who found the bodies told AFP the two were probably killed because of their friendship.


No one has claimed the bodies, which are still in Ghazni hospital, police said.

What kind of parents would do this to their own children?

Another Afghan Woman Tortured By Husband And In-Laws

Another case of wife torture in Afghanistan.

According to Khaama Press, in the capital city of northern Baghlan province, Pul-e-Khumri, Afghan police arrested Abdul Mateen for torturing his 22-year-old wife Reeka by

.... shaving her head, putting her on snow and beating with cables.

The individual was finally detained by Afghan security forces and is currently under the investigations.

In the meantime provincial women affairs department chief Rahima Zarifee praised the Afghan security forces and said the tortured Afghan lady was taken to a secure place and her husband along with the first wife of him was detained by Afghan security forces.

Reeka who was tortured by her husband said she got married with Abdul Mateen three years back and was tortured, humiliated and insulted by her husband during these three years, and was even to prostitution.

She also said she filed complain against her husband but went to her husband’s house due to continued requests and lack of residence where she was again tortured until the police forces were informed and arrested her husband.

This comes as the wave of violence against women have dramatically increased across the country specifically in northern Baghlan province which has created concerns among the government officials and local residents in this province.

This was the same region where they found the 15-year-old bride, Sahar Gul, who had been starved, severely tortured, and kept in a dark basement by her husband and in-laws for refusing to prostitute herself.

At least they survived, 28-year-old Fatima wasn't so lucky. She was hanged by her husband's family, and then they threw boiling water over her dead body.

If violence against women is escalating now, just wait until we pull out.

Very sad!