IN our deeply conservative society, patriarchy is a system of social governance that allows men to silence women when the latter dare call out misogyny or sexism, or fight back for their basic rights.

When male-centric power structures are challenged, or even cracked periodically, they are reclaimed through force, violence and even the murder of women.

A few days ago, 25-year-old Sumbul Khan, a singer from Mardan, was shot in cold blood in her home by three men for apparently refusing to perform at a private party.

The suspects included a former police officer who has since been arrested.

While the state must ensure severe punishment for her killers, it must also ensure that the heinous crime of murder is not ‘forgiven’ by victims’ families who are often financially destitute and so under duress to make unnatural compromises.

In such instances, the state must become a complainant in murder cases so that the perpetrator is punished instead of forgiven.

When such problematic settlements are reached in murder cases, attackers can kill again with impunity.

Sumbul’s murder is a case in point — one of the suspects was previously convicted for murdering his wife in 2012.

Identified as Jehangir Khan, the suspect was the husband of Pashto singer Ghazala Javed whom he shot six times because she had filed for a divorce when she discovered he had a second wife.

Even though it was her right to refuse her husband’s polygamous behaviour, her decision was taken as an act of defiance in a conservative society where a woman’s divorcing her husband is seen as dishonouring the latter.

Though convicted by the court for Ghazala’s murder and that of her father, her killer was pardoned by her family under the law.

When, fuelled by conservative mindsets, the murders of innocent women by intimate partners show no signs of abating, it is the responsibility of the state to strengthen legal protections so that women are not dehumanised to the point of death.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2018