Teenage girl dead after Christian honour killing

A Christian man from Sialkot has murdered his sister in cold blood after she spoke of marrying her boyfriend whom the family did not approve.

The attack took place at around 10pm on Friday June 10th 2016. During a fit of rage, Anum Masih (19 years) was bludgeoned to death with a piece of
wood by her brother Saqib Masih (23 years), whilst in her bed.

The animosity towards Anum developed after she had asked permission to marry her boyfriend, who was from the same caste as Anum.  Whereas Muslim
communities abhor couples marrying from outside of a caste, Christians couples are expected to marry from outside their caste due to a false premise
of incest. Her boyfriend was not related by immediate bloodline but shared the same caste and to the family this was objectionable.

“My daughter wronged the family causing great embarrassment by choosing a boy from her own caste.  Our family did not condone her wedding and Saqib tried to make her change her mind so we could preserve our honour. Saqib got into an argument with his sister and started to hit her with a stick to correct her ways, but things got out of control and he ended up killing her.  He did not start the beating with intent to kill her.”

He added:

“I called the police and had my some arrested as he had killed his sister.  But I will choose to forgive him as he did not mean to kill her and I cannot lose a son and daughter.”

The attack shocked Pakistani Christians across the globe from which incidents of honour crime are rare. BPCA investigated the family and discovered
that the family are from a catholic background and live in a very rural region of Pakistan.  The family rarely go to church but still acknowledge
the Christian faith.  There understanding of Christian doctrine is limited and all members of the family are illiterate.  It is believed
that all these factors have made the family extremely susceptible to the cultural norms within their community rather then the precepts of the Gospels.
In conditions such as these were Christians are unable to read their scriptures fro themselves and choose not to have fellowship with the church, concepts
such as caste are able to manifest.

Local Christians from Anum’s community attended her funeral however local families refused to eat the food provided by Anum’s family, in disgust of
the murder of Anum.  This Illustrates that to some extent the ideological position held by the family of Anum is not widespread amongst Christians
in their village.  

BPCA has always been aware of the spiritual and theological deficiency amongst rural communities in Pakistan and last year we held four outreaches,
reaching out to many nominal Christians in the most deprived regions.  Sialkot was one of the areas that we visited and to help illiterate Christians we distributed audio bibles, to enable them to develop their faith and understanding of Christianity. Sadly this
family had not been reached.

Our officer Naveed Aziz met with the family and people in the local community, he said:

“This family have a very distorted view on honour that is influenced by the Muslim community within which they live. Concepts of caste are not adhere to in most Christian communities, the majority of Christians come from the lower levels of this ancient man made social stratification, through no fault of their own. Our Christ asks us to forgive those who sin against us, but this family ignored His words.  This young woman’s desire to lawfully marry a Christian husband, should
not have caused such hatred, I hope her death brings cultural transformation.”

He added:

“The mother and father of Anum seem less distressed about the death of their daughter and perversely concerned about their son Saqib, who they
desire to release from prison by forgiving him of the crime. There is little remorse for their part in allowing their daughter to be killed. I
felt moved to remind them of when Christ forgave the adulteress, but my words fell on deaf ears.”

Honour killings are the names given to girls and women killed by family members in response to a perceived dishonouring of family reputation or faith. In 2012, a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan stated 900 women were killed in so-called honor killings in 2011.  93 of the reported victims were minors and 7 Christians were also among the victims.

Wilson Chowdhry chairman of the BPCA said:

“Although honour killings are rife in Pakistan they are extremely rare amongst the Christian community. Churches preach against violence of any kind but in a patriarchal society based on tribal allegiances and fundamentally Islamic, women find themselves targeted and undermined – even amongst the Christian community who are not impervious.”

He added:

“Pakistan’s education system perpetuates lower social status for women and promulgates honour concepts. If blame is to be laid anywhere for this social malaise then it should be placed on an insouciant government, who are allowing schools to become more islamist. Advances have been made in laws to protect women in recent years including Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act 2006 and the Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2016 . However implementation of these progressive laws has been woeful and there is yet need of exemplary cases to improve the status and protection of women.”

BPCA intends to hold further outreach programmes throughout
Pakistan from which we will distribute further free audio bibles.  In march next year we intend to support Pastor Leighton from Bradford as he initiates a theological workshop in Pakistan to correct ongoing discrepancies that have entered Pakistani doctrine.  Church doctrine in Pakistan has absorbed undesirable culture and tradition including a move towards ritual and practice rather then salvation and redemption.  If you would likr to support this work through a donation please (click here).




Father and Mother of Anum their children and Saqib Masih’s wife and baby



Home of Izhaq Masih



Naveed Aziz prayed with the family.