What Is An 'Honor Killing'? Pakistani Mother Sentenced To Death For Burning Daughter

A mother in Pakistan was handed the death penalty Monday after being found guilty of burning her daughter alive for marrying a man without her family’s permission.

Parveen Bibi told a special court in Lahore, Punjab, that she killed her daughter, Zeenat Rafiq, 18, in June after finding out that she married Hassan Khan and eloped to live with his family, CNN reported Tuesday.

After a month of living with her new husband, Rafiq returned home with the hopes of working things out with her own family. But when Rafiq arrived, her relatives tied her to a bed, doused her with kerosene and set her on fire.

Parveen Bibi said that she performed the heinous act because her daughter was “bringing shame to her family.”

A so-called “honor killing” is often religiously motivated and refers to an instance in which one relative kills another for allegedly dishonoring the family name.

The court also sentenced the victim’s brother, Anees Rafiq, to a life in prison after forensic evidence pointed to him and his mother beating and asphyxiating Rafiq before Parveen Bibi burned her alive.

Lahore, which has a population of over 10 million people, is roughly 240 miles southeast of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

None of Rafiq’s relatives claimed her body after the murder, leaving her husband’s family to bury her scorched remains in a graveyard at night outside of the city, according to local reports Tuesday.

Women in Pakistan were victims of a disturbing amount of violence in 2015; a year in which there were 1,100 reported “honor killings.”

A law was passed in Pakistan in October of 2016 against “honor killings” three months after the grisly murder of social media personality Qandeel Baloch by her brother. After Baloch’s brother was arrested for killing her, he didn’t express any remorse for his actions, saying in a confessional video, "I am proud of what I did. I drugged her first, then I killed her. She was bringing dishonor to our family."

There were roughly 5,000 women who have lost their lives in honor killings annually, according to a United Nations study from 2000.