But, more than a year on, lawyers and activists say honour killings are still occurring at an alarming pace. “In fact, the Peshawar High Court twice acquitted a man of honour crimes after this law was passed,” she added. The new legislation mandates life imprisonment for honour killings, but whether a murder can be defined as a crime of honour is left to the judge’s discretion. “People even sympathise (with) and praise the men who murder their women for so-called honour,” he said. Her brother Waseem told reporters that “of course” he had strangled his sister, finding her behaviour “intolerable”.

Source: Egypt Independent October 31, 2017 03:22 UTC