For the sake of my honour, shoot my wife.

I was just wrapping up work when one of the peons at work, Yusuf, approached me, swore me to me secrecy, and asked me for my help. He is a proud 35 year old pathan man belonging to the Yusufzai tribe who calls the outskirts of Peshawar his home. At the time he arrived at my desk,most of the office had emptied out; he preferred it that way. Looking absolutely ashamed, he lowered his head and confided to me the harrowing ordeal of his sister in law:

Three days ago in a village around 100 kilometers from Peshawar, Yusuf’s sister-in-law was walking towards her house. A car sped towards her; upon reaching her, a man got out, bundled her in to the car and sped off. The woman is a mother of three; and besides being Yusuf’s sister-in-law is married to his cousin – an ex ASF (Airport Security Force) officer who lost one of his arm during an ‘operation.’

After two days of tribal investigation it has now been revealed that the man who abducted Yusuf’s sister-in-law, is a young man who also happens to be related to her husband. (and Yusuf). The tribal elders however, do not agree with this version of the story and are adamant that this mother of three has just run away with her lover. As you may be aware, love birds are a big no-no in then NWFP. The tribal elders have only one remedy for such a situation and that is death for both the man and the woman; this maintains the honour of both their families.

In lieu of this the tribal elders approached the man’s father and he gave them permission to shoot the man. The tribal elders then approached Yusuf’s cousin, the woman’s husband, and he also gave the elders permission to shoot the woman, citing that she ran away with him.

Yusuf’s wife the woman’s sister, remains adamant that this is not the case. A woman’s word however, counts for naught (they do menstruate you know, and can not be trusted with any sane judgments.). She has been defiant in her defense for her sister and vehemently protests against the pronouncement of the tribe and continues to claim that her sister would never abandon her husband. But Yusuf’s wife also realizes that there’s little she can do so she sits idly at home, inconsolable, and refuses to eat a single grain.

The entire story reminded me of the scene in The Usual Suspects wherein Koba Yashi (Kevin Spacey’s character) kills his own wife, after she has been raped. That however, was fiction, and this, very much, is reality.

After revealing these details, Yusuf just stood there and waited for me to say / do something that would take this entire problem away. But I just stared at him impotently, not knowing what to say. I realized from the off-set that no matter how hard I tried there was little I could do.

The only thing I could do was call an associate in Lahore who also handles our cases in Peshawar and ask him to contact the police so that they may prevent the tribe from killing the woman. After hearing the facts our associated excused himself from the case and informed me that I should just pray to God, for there was nothing else that could protect the woman. (Apparently, after the elections the entire police hierarchy has been updated and a majority of the old SHOs have been transferred. These new police officials are political appointees who have been chosen for their loyalty to local power brokers; there’s no way in hell that there going to go against the edict of the tribal elders).

That's it then, I’ll probably call Zia Awan (a Human Rights Lawyer) and the Ansar Burney trust and solicit them for their help. Then I’ll return to work and try forgetting this entire story. What else can I do?

There is a woman, a mother of three, possibly kidnapped, with a bullet on her head and no one willing to prevent her slaughter.