The Pakistani society at various points seems inhumanely conservative. In the view of most of the world perhaps it is religion that defines our lives. However, there is one thing that supersedes religious values, ethics, morality, and justice – it is culture. It is a culture that has been thrust upon us since generations upon generations, a thought process that has been ingrained into our very souls. It is the culture of the Hindu. Not that this particular culture has everything bad in it, it comes with thousands of years of wisdom and it has been evolving over the centuries, but it doesn’t merit these values to supersede our faith nor should they.

Sociology defines culture as “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterises an institution, organisation, or group”. It follows from this that culture is made and construed by man.

Organisations, groups and institutions are man-made establishments that can set forth faulty notions at times which can gain momentum over the decades and become so deeply entrenched in our system of beliefs that we eventually stop questioning them. Certain beliefs or mindsets have taken complete control of our rationale, such as the caste-system and honor killings. Much worse, they are being committed in the name of God as boundaries between holy injunctions and cultural taboos merge despite a sharp distinction.

Unfortunately, Muslims, despite Islam’s abolishing such hierarchies, have failed to escape from its’ clasp that has dominated our way of thinking. Even the religious zealots tend to differentiate and feel a hollow pride which they believe comes from their caste. For our own selves each one of us is a Brahmin and the other an untouchable; ever so more in villages but still very prominent in cities.

This hollow feeling of superiority invokes a sense of false pride and honor, this honor is based on treating the weaker sex as a commodity and their life no more than a plaything. How “honorable” it is to even hit a woman, let alone kill her, knowing that she cannot defend herself against you? Murdered in the name of honor, and for what reason, because she wanted to marry by choice? One should not forget that it is a basic human right of every man and woman guaranteed to them by every living and breathing society, culture and religion, including Islam. But then of course, we are more cultural than we are religious.

Each year hundreds, if not thousands, of women fall prey to such horrendous acts of “honor killing”. What gives it more authenticity is the fact that other women in the household usually support the murder and law enforcement agencies are either not interested to pursue such cases or they are not reported. To a family this is more of a “family matter” than a judicial concern. The majority of women that are murdered in the name of honor are reported as either accidents or suicide.

At times one may think murder is not even as bad as the alternatives – maiming and mutilating helpless women. But this is how it is, this is what we are, blame the Taliban or religious extremists all we want, it is an undeniable verity that we as a nation are as much cultural zealots as we are religious, if not more.

Just because it is your daughter, it does not give you the right to take her life, but in certain societies and cultures, it does – our own is a prime example.

While one may argue that such “honor killings” happen in other countries as well and that Pakistan is not alone in practicing this wrong, the singular response I have to that is – two wrongs don’t make a right. The practice of killing daughters at birth was prevalent in Arabia before Islam came, but today it is the murder of fully grown adult women or mutilation of their bodies just because the man of the family thinks his “honor” has been tarnished and he must avenge that. The other side of the border, there are cases of “dowry killing”, and yet we claim to live in an age of enlightenment. It is more of a blind age that has followed the dark ages of Europe than enlightenment.

So as the Ghairat Brigade marches on in almost every other household and tramples upon the freedom and rights of their own kin, the notion of a woman as a personal property of the male members of her household is strengthened. It is further reinforced in our society due to other women condoning these acts as well as a discouraging attitude of the law enforcement agencies in pursuing such cases. While men are allowed almost anything and everything, basic human rights fall a bit short for the weaker sex in our society – a glaring example of double standards in a society and culture that has become deaf, dumb and blind.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.