Pregnant woman stoned to death by her own family for 'marrying the man she loved'

Farzana Iqbal’s family attacked her and her husband with sticks and bricks before a crowd in broad daylight.

By Dave Lancaster |

16:09 28 May 2014

Farzana Iqbal has been stoned to death by her own family outside a high court in Pakistan. 

 

The 25-year-old woman - who was pregnant at the time - was hit by stones and sticks for marrying the man she was in love with. 

 

Police in Lahore confirmed the killing as police official Naseem Butt said 20 members of Farzana Iqbal’s family attacked her and her husband with bricks and other projectiles on Tuesday as a crowd gathered round.

 

Ms Iqbal was waiting for the court to open when the attack took place. She was engaged to her cousin but rebelled from the family marriage by going on to marry the man she truly loved instead, Mohammad Iqbal.

 

Mrs and Mrs Iqbal were due in court to contest the case she was being abducted by him - a charge filed by her father. 

 

She died of her injuries in hospital. 

 

Only Iqbal's father failed to escape from the scene. He later admitted to killing his own daughter. 

 

"I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it," the father was quoted as saying by police according to The Independent.

 

According to Pakistani rights group the Aurat Foundation, roughly 1,000 Pakistani women are the victim of 'honour killings' at the hands of their own families. As the government does not compile statistics on this, the foundation only has newspaper reports to go on and thus believes the true figure to be much higher. 

 

A family can forgive a killer allowing them to walk free. As the killer is often a member of the victim's family anyway, it means the cases that do result in convictions can be overturned.