Gender (in)justice - Pakistan
Timeframe: Nov 2003 - Nov 2006
Funder: NORAD
The report review steps taken by the Musharraf government to combat honour killings through an examination of legal reforms in the years between 2003- 2006.
The phenomenon of honour killings is analysed through the lens of legal pluralism where the negative synergies in the interplay between customary law (riwaj) and religious law (Sharia) has undermined womens rights in statutory family laws.
The conflict between private lives and public law is revealed through an exploration of contestation for the control of women's rights in marriage law. The weak public intervention to protect women against extra-judicial honour killings legitimises the privatisation of the right to claim revenge for example under non written customary law (riwaj). The report gives an overview over the interplayof reactionary and reformist agendas in the current legislative reform.
