Pakistan woman paraded with blackened face, shaved head

LAHORE, June 19: A 23-year-old woman was paraded in her village streets with blackened face and shaved off head by her family members for allegedly eloping with a man, the latest in a series of ‘honour’ related crimes in Pakistan’s Punjab province. According to eyewitnesses, the family members including parents of the woman, on Saturday paraded her in the streets outside her house after blackening her face and shaving off her head in a village of Uch Sharif, Bahawalpur, some 400km from Lahore.

Reports said the woman who had allegedly eloped with a man of another village returned home a week later. On her return, her family members including father, husband and step-mother reportedly tortured her secretly and then presented her before a Panchayat (a gathering of area elders) that announced punishment for her for her crime of ‘dishonouring the family’.

Senior police officer Ehsan Sadiq told reporters that an FIR has been registered against 10 family members of the woman and the Panchayat members and arrested the victim’s father and step-mother. (IANS)