Analysis: Honour crimes and the state By Zeenia shaukat 17 May 2016 Link: http://tribune.com.pk/story/1104800/analysis-honour-crimes-and-the-state/ In the last week of April, 16-year-old Ambreen joined the list of countless women who had to be given an exemplary punishment to protect the honour of a community that wanted to send a strong message to anybody violating their unwritten code concerning women's behaviour. She was preceded by Farzana Parveen whose family stoned her to death in 2014, ironically outside the house of justice in Lahore minutes before she could appear for a hearing to defend her right to marry out of her own choice. Recently, Karachi's Sumera was also killed right before a crowd of dozens by her own brother. The mutilated and charred remains of these three and over thousand other women every year, as estimated by the International Resource Centre on Honour Based Violence, reminds of the extremes of violence practiced in the private and communal spheres in Pakistan. In-depth studies of crimes against women trace its roots to a patriarchal mindset that seeks to exert control over women's minds, bodies and choices, and a social structure that facilitates the execution of such a control, even if it requires employment of violent means. The state's role in addressing such crimes by way of laws and an enforcement structure committed to bringing culprits to justice is of course a very relevant part of the equation. Pakistani rights bodies and human rights advocates, in addition to conscientious members of the parliament, mostly led by women, have tirelessly struggled to address the lacunas in laws that allow perpetrators of honour crimes a free way. Even police and the judiciary seem to have become increasingly aware of their respective institutions' important roles in addressing honour crimes. It has been noted with much relief that in the recent Sumera case in Karachi, police have made themselves a complainant to prevent this crime from falling prey to the loopholes of the Criminal Code 2005 (meant to address honour killings). There is no doubt a stronger set of laws and law enforcement targeted against honour crimes can do much to put a stop to such acts. However, the question that needs to be asked is: Does the state's role finish at stronger legislation, an efficient police cadre and an aware and empowered judiciaryffi How effectively can these elements work in the presence of a system, unfortunately supervised by this very state that silently encourages suppression of the weak, sanctions violence and pursues institutionalised discrimination against womenffi In any society, state is the most powerful contributor to the foundations of societal relations, and so is its role in regulating them and addressing gaps that foster inequalities and marginalisation. However, by way of its actions and inactions, Pakistani state is forever in the process of creating more dispossession and marginalisation, whether by withdrawing from essential public services, such as access to healthcare, education, housing and law and order, or by systematic exclusion of religious, ethnic and gender minorities from the sphere