Woman stoned to death by her own family

A woman was stoned to death by her own family in front of a Pakistani high court yesterday for marrying the man she loved, police and a defence lawyer said.

Nearly 20 members of the woman’s family, including her father and brothers, attacked her and her husband with batons and bricks in broad daylight before a crowd of onlookers in front of the high court of Lahore, said police official Naseem Butt.

They all fled afterward except for the father, who admitted it was an honour killing.

Police said Farzana Parveen, 25, had married Mohammad Iqbal, with whom she had been engaged for years in opposition to her family. She had been engaged to her cousin, which was arranged by her family, but married another man and her father had filed an abduction case against her husband, which the couple was contesting, said her lawyer, Mustafa Kharal.

Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Pakistanis, who view marriage for love as a transgression.

Hundreds of women are killed every year in Muslim-majority Pakistan in so-called “honour killings” carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behaviour.

Kharal said Parveen’s relatives waited outside the court, which is located on a main downtown thoroughfare. As the couple walked up to the court’s main gate, the family members fired shots in the air and tried to snatch her from Iqbal, he said.

When she resisted, her father, brothers and other relatives started beating her, eventually pelting her with bricks from a nearby construction site, Iqbal said.

Iqbal, 45, said he started seeing Parveen after the death of his first wife, with whom he had five children.

“We were in love,” he said. He alleged that the woman’s family wanted to fleece money from him before marrying her off.

“I simply took her to court and registered a marriage,” infuriating the family, he said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a private organisation, said in a report last month that some 869 women were murdered in so-called honour killings in 2013.

Meanwhile, a pregnant Sudanese woman sentenced to death after refusing to renounce her Christian faith in favour of Islam has given birth in prison.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, gave birth to a girl early yesterday in the hospital wing of a prison in Omdurman, the twin city of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, one of her lawyers, Elshareef Ali, said by phone. Her 20-month-old son has been held with her in prison since late February, Ali said.

Ibrahim was convicted of apostasy and adultery by a court in Khartoum on May 11 in a case that’s sparked criticism from the international rights groups, including Amnesty International. The court gave her three days to recant her faith and sentenced her to death by hanging when she refused.

Her legal team lodged an appeal with the Sudanese court on May 22, saying the verdict contradicts the country’s 2005 constitution, which enshrines freedom of faith, as well as international rights agreements to which Sudan is a signatory, Ali said.

Ibrahim’s father was Muslim but her mother was an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia.

Amnesty International immediately condemned the sentence, calling it “abhorrent“. The US State Department said it was “deeply disturbed” by the sentencing and called on the government to respect the right to freedom of religion.

Ibrahim and Wani married in a formal church ceremony. The couple run several businesses, including a farm, south of Khartoum.

Sudan’s penal code criminalises the conversion of Muslims into other religions, which is punishable by death.