The husband of Farzana Parveen, the Pakistani woman stoned to death for refusing to participate in an arranged marriage, told CNN he killed his first wife so he could marry Parveen.
Authorities said the first wife was killed six years ago.
“I wanted to send a proposal to Farzana, so I killed my wife,” Mohammad Iqbal said Thursday in an interview with CNN.
Zulfiqar Hameed, district inspector general for the Punjab police, said Iqbal’s son from the first marriage alerted police to the slaying six years ago.
Iqbal was arrested but later released on bail because his son forgave him, Hameed said.
The son, Aurengzeb, who is in his 20s, confirmed his father’s statements to CNN. He said his father served a year in jail.
Parveen, who was three months pregnant, was beaten to death with bricks Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore by a group of about 20 people, including her brothers, father and cousin, police said. Police have arrested Parveen’s father and are searching for the other killers in this all-too-common crime.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has requested that Punjab’s chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, submit a report on the incident.
The United Nations estimates 5,000 women are murdered worldwide by family members each year in “honor killings,” so named because the woman’s actions are considered to have brought shame on her family. But women’s advocacy groups say the crime is underreported and the figure could be around 20,000 a year.
“Most ‘honor’ crimes can be traced to inflexible and discriminatory attitudes about women’s roles, especially around sexuality,” said Rothna Begum of Human Rights Watch. “Women or couples seen as having brought ‘dishonor’ on the community face violence, which is then held out as a chilling example for others.”
Posted by , Published at 3:28 AM and have
0
comments
No comments:
Post a Comment