In Sindh’s ‘graveyard of dishonoured women,’ Pakistan’s feudal culture still fuels honour killing

New Delhi: Fattu Shah, a remote village in northern Sindh, Pakistan, hides a grim secret — a burial ground locals call the “graveyard for dishonoured women.” The unmarked graves, devoid of names or rituals, are the final resting places of women killed in the name of “honour”, according to a report by DW.

“For 15 years, I’ve been documenting this site — each grave tells the story of a woman silenced,” said researcher and activist Aisha Dharejo, who runs Sindh Suhai Sath, an organisation supporting survivors of gender-based violence.

She says victims are denied even basic burial rites, their bodies hastily buried in shallow pits.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, at least 405 people were killed in “honour” crimes in 2024, with Sindh and Punjab reporting the highest numbers.

Activists say the real toll is much higher, as many cases go unreported due to the influence of feudal landlords and tribal customs, the report said.

“These killings have nothing to do with tradition,” said Dharejo. “They are often about property, revenge, or control. Women’s bodies become currency in negotiations between families.”

One survivor, talking to DW, Sobia Batool Shah, said that she was attacked by her father and relatives in Naushahro Feroze for seeking a divorce.

“They made me disabled. They took away my strength to walk,” she said. Supported by Dharejo’s group, she filed cases against her attackers — a rare step in rural Sindh.

Another woman, Haleema Bhutto, was married at 12 and later accused of adultery when she refused to hand over her inheritance. After 18 years of struggle and protests outside Islamabad Press Club, she won a Supreme Court case in 2011, restoring her property. “I fought so he couldn’t kill me,” Haleema said.

But Dharejo warns that real change requires dismantling feudal and patriarchal systems that perpetuate violence. “Education and awareness help, but unless power structures are challenged, women will keep ending up in these silent graveyards,” she said.

IANS