A 25-year-old woman and her three younger stepsisters have been murdered in a brutal “honor killing” in Pakistan. The Associated Press reports that Nazir Ahmed slit the throats of his stepdaughter, Muqadas, and his three young daughters, ages 8, 7, and 4, after Muqadas was accused of adultery by her husband. Ahmed killed the younger children because he thought they “would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated,” AP reports.
However, there is no evidence of an affair; it is more likely, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and reported by the AP, that Muqadas was abused by her husband and had decided to leave him. The girls’ mother was present for the slayings; she told the AP, “I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters. I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, ÔIf you make a noise, I will kill you’.”
Ahmed has been arrested and may face the death penalty. However, Kamla Hyat, director of the Human Rights Commission has stated, “Women are treated as property and those committing crimes against them do not get punished. The steps taken by our government have made no real difference,” the AP reports.
