Please don't ever close your eyes...

I've just watched a documentary about honor killing in Pakistan. Oh my god. I mean I'd heard about it before, read about it before, seen brief reports on it.

And today I wanted so badly to change the channel, it's just such a painful thing to watch, but I wouldn't let myself because it seemed the cowardly option.

I can't live with myself in a world where I pretend not to see how others are suffering, while I'm blessed with so much.

So I sat with my cup of tea and cried while I watched.

It was just so shocking. One woman's husband came home late at night, put their children in a room, beat her with an axe handle, hung her upside down, and using a knife, cut out her eyes, cut off her ears, sawed off her nose, and with pliers in her mouth attempted to cut out her tounge so she couldn't testify.

She was six months pregnant.


Can you even imagine the pain that someone would endure in those moments?

Can you even imagine what nightmares that women must live with everyday of her life?

Can you even imagine how her children must feel not wanting to go near their mother because she's deformed and they know their father did that to her?



This woman, Zaheda, survived her husbands attack because the neighbours heard her screams....and when they saw her face they screamed.

She used to be a beautiful woman and even though she's now blind, she says she can feel people's eyes on her if she walks outside, she can hear the rumours they whisper...


Men in Pakistan were interviewed for this documentary. One of them killed his own 15 year old daughter. He said he did it for honor.

Going to court in Pakistan is almost impossible for women, there are only men in the courts and if you report a rape to the police you could be jailed for ten years for lying.

It makes me sick to watch the Prime Minister of this country being interviewed with a SMUG smile on his face and denying that honor killings even happen. What an ignorant, selfish bastard.

I can understand a difference in culture, I can understand if some cultures require certain degrees of modesty in terms of how woman dress or how they conduct themselves in public. But I don't see how ANYONE, especially an educated person, could EVER condone murder and blatant brutality.


They interviewed a wealthy educated couple from Pakistan's capital city of Karachi, where woman live in relative freedom compared to their counterparts in the country.

They say men who commit honor killings don't want woman to marry outside the family because that divides up the inheritence. He says most honor killings are performed for reasons of land and inheritence.

What a pathetic reason.


Zaheda's husbands family tried to bribe her not to go to court. The only support she had was from her brother who only earns a little, but uses all the money he has to care for his sister.

The bravery of these two people is just SO incredibly inspiring to me. They've stayed strong in their inner truth against ALL the odds life has thrown at them. You can see it in the graceful way they go about living their lives, in which they still manage to find joy in living because they get to share it with each other.

It is just AMAZING to see people with such quiet dignity and inner strength.

These people know true courage.

And that is so inspiring to me. And it's summed up I think in this qoute from Zaheda's brother...

"Honor is within. Honor is grace and humility, honor is courage and honesty. God knows the difference between those with who posess honor and those who claim it."

May we never close our eyes to the world around us, because even within the most terrible pain and tragedy can be found the greatest inspiration.

Please don't ever close your eyes...