Daughter Burned Alive For Choosing Her Own Husband

There’s enough to worry about when you start planning a wedding. Your mother burning you alive shouldn’t be one of them.

On Wednesday, a Pakistani mother burnt her 16-year-old daughter alive for marrying a man of her own choice. She then shouted to neighbors outside admitting what she had done and said she killed the teen for bringing shame to her family.

According to police, 16 year old Zeenat Bibi was set on fire by her mother Perveen Bibi in the eastern city of Lahore a little more than a week after the couple had acquired their marriage license.

“Perveen Bibi killed her daughter Zeenat Bibi by burning her alive around 9:00 am on Wednesday,” Haidar Ashraf, a senior police official told AFP, adding the teen had married a man named Hasan Khan on May 29.

Naseem Bibi, Perveen’s younger sister, told AFP: “After killing her daughter, Perveen went out on the street, took off her shawl and started beating herself on her chest, shouting: ‘People! I have killed my daughter for misbehaving and giving our family a bad name.'”
According to the woman’s family, the discord stemmed from Khan’s ethnicity, as he is an ethnic Pashtun, while Zeenat was a Punjabi.

Zeenat’s husband Khan told local TV station Geo News that the pair had eloped and that he had reluctantly allowed her to return to her family home after they promised they would not harm her.

He said: “After living with me for four days following our marriage, her family contacted us and promised they would throw us a proper wedding party after eight days. Then we would be able live together.

“Zeenat was unwilling to go back to her home and told me that she would be killed by her family, but later agreed when one of her uncles guaranteed her safety.

“After two days, she called me and said that her family had gone back on their word and asked me to come to get her, but I told her to wait for the promised eight days. Then, she was killed.”

Police seized kerosene oil from the scene.

Unfortunatley hundred of women like Zeenat Bibi are killed by relatives in Pakistan each year, in so-called honor killings.