THE veracity of the report about the murder of five girls in Kohistan is still in doubt. They were purportedly killed by a local jirga just for singing and clapping at a wedding ceremony with two male companions.

We are still living in a patriarchal society where women sometimes can’t even breathe out of their own will due to the cultural suffocation and limited choices they face. Even after working hard all day long like machines, their poor lives remain at the stake of jirga which can accuse them of any immorality.

It was encouraging to see various women-friendly bills, including the ‘Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill and the Anti-Women Practices Bill’, being passed by the government which gave a hope to these suppressed women to live with dignity and enjoy their fundamental rights.

However, this incident has deepened their wounds and has challenged the current laws, showing that the local jirga system is superior to the laws made through legislation.

It is our humble request to the people sitting in the powerful corridors of parliament to take serious action against this barbaric act and to present a bill in parliament against these local jirga systems.

I request the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take these brutal tyrants behind bars otherwise a day will soon come when these jirgas will be ruling over us. Besides, they will be openly slaughtering our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters in the streets.

ABDULLAH DAYO Islamabad