The latest victim of familial revenge – or ‘honor killing’, as some may call it – is the well-known singer Shameem aka Aimen Udas. She was reportedly shot dead by her own brothers who escaped after shooting Shameem. Shameem, known well on both stage and television, had got married a week ago; and it was this marriage that cost her her life.

According to news sources, Shameem married a man named Usman – a native of Swabi – last week and they started living in a flat on rent near Koochi Plaza. Shamem’s brothers, Alamgeer and Ismaeel, were unhappy over this marriage. On Monday, April 27, her brothers opened firing at her, which killed the newly wed singer at once. The criminals fled the scene while Usman reported the murder to the police.

In a similar incident, taking place on Tuesday, April 28, a guy named Asad killed his sister for her insistence on marrying the man of her own choice. The incident happened in Mansehra (NWFP) where the enraged brother shot his sister Irum when she persisted in her will to marry the man she liked.

These recent killings are examples of the ongoing cases of murder through familial revenge occurring throughout the country. The victim is almost always the woman who refuses to give herself into an arranged marriage and marries, or tries to marry, the man of her choice. In some cases, suitors who are turned down by women target the women, or even their families.

In other cases, the women’s own family, usually brothers, kill her. This from of honor killing is becoming more prevalent and remains a direct form of male dictatorship in both rural and urban areas of the country.