(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.Why? Because our society has patriarchal structure in which male members of family dominated the decisions and females especially young girls have no right to marry with their own desire. In the wake of this structure honor killing (also called as karo Kari) is common in our society.
The number of honour killings appears to be steadily increasing as the perception of what constitutes honour widens. There are honour killings for rape, for seeking marriage and for seeking divorce. Women are not given a chance to clear up possible misunderstandings. Tradition decrees only one method to restore honour-to kills the offending woman. A woman subjected to rape brings shame to her family just as she would when engaging in a consensual relationship. “A woman raped shames the community and dishonours the man”, according to Nafisa Shah-it does not dishonour the rapist. Expressing a desire to choose a marriage partner and actually contracting a marriage with a partner of one’s choice in a society where majority of marriages are arranged by parents are considered major acts of defiance. Women who marry a man of their choice take recourse to state law, placing themselves outside the traditional shame; by the public nature of their action, they shame their guardians leading them to resort to violence to restore their honour. Frequently fathers bring charges of zina against their daughters who have married partners of their choice. But even when such a complaint is before a court, some men resort to private justice in the name of honour killings. For instance, the most recent form of honour killings for seeking divorce occurred on 6th April 1999, when 29-year-old Samia Sarwar, a mother of two young sons was shot dead in her lawyer’s office in Lahore. Her lawyer Hina Jilani was also threatened but not injured. The apparent reason for the killing was Samia Sarwar’s family, as their honour was defiled by her disobedience to their wishes and her persistence in seeking divorce from her abusive husband. They had allowed her to return home and accepted the incompatibility of spouses, but would not allow her to divorce. Her father is a prominent businessman, her mother a doctor, while Samia studied law. From this example we can easily interpret the extent to which girls are deprived of their right to get married or to have divorce with their own choice.One more reason to support this article of UDHR is the trend of child marriages and forced marriages in our society. A forced marriage is defined as a marriage “conducted without the valid consent of one or both parties and is a marriage in which duress whether physical or emotional - is a factor. FORWARD (Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls)believes that any child marriage constitutes a forced marriage, in recognition that even if a child appears to give their consent, anyone under the age of 18 is not able to make a fully informed choice whether or not to marry. Child marriages must be viewed within a context of force and coercion, involving pressure and emotional blackmail and children that lack the choice or capacity to give their full consent. This is really heinous crime, as it makes the large part of our society deprived of their right to marry with their own choice. There are numerous detrimental consequences associated with Child marriage, with physical, developmental, psychological and social implications.Supporting the article 16 of UDHR, is very important for our society. It should be implied amply in Pakistan and also in rest of Asian states, where honour killing, child marriages are very common practice. Main reasons are lack of awareness, poverty, education, religious misconception, weak control of government over these issues and patriarchal structure of these societies. Because in case of honour killing, prestige and life of women, both are harmed badly by their own family members as well as child marriages mainly affects the health of that girl who got married. So, in our society we have dire need of article 16 of UDHR to be implemented. ___________________________This article is based on readings and class discussions by Sehrish FarooqBibliographyhttp://www.karokari.com/types_honour.html
http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/key-issues/fgmhttp
http://www.unhrc.org