Pakistan's journalist gunned down for supporting love marriage
Source: Times of India
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani journalist has been brutally shot dead by the relatives of a woman for supporting her in marrying a man of her choice without the family's permission in Punjab province, sparking massive protests.
Ajmal Joyia, who was in his 30s, was going home on a motorbike when he was targeted by at least three gunmen in Lodhran district. He was killed on Monday while his cousin, who was also riding on the same motorbike, was critically injured, police said.
"Joyia was targeted by the relatives of a woman who married a man of her choice without the permission of the family," a police official said.
He had reportedly extended his support to the beleaguered couple and was said to have approached district authorities to provide the couple with adequate security, reports said.
Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pakistans-journalist-gunned-down-for-supporting-love-marriage/articleshow/52239086.cms
Coventina
(27,227 posts)RIP Ajmal Joyla.
Someone will soon say that
romanic
(2,841 posts)But no a serious note, RIP to Joyla; it's a shame that showing support for something as normal as a woman marrying a man of her choice leads to death by extremists.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)And far too many supposed progressives right here on DU will ignore it, deflect from it and, of course, blame the West for it.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Not with lunatics like this running around. Poor man.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)It was against the law even in ancient Rome and Greece to marry against your parents wishes. Emperor Justinian in the 500s changed that, permitting marriages on love alone.
Mohammad seems to follow that same rule, his first wife picked him as her husband. On the other hand arranged marriages were still the norm during his time period.
The problem is in most clan and tribal system your support group is your blood relatives, thus making sure they agree with such a marriage is important to them. The best way to achieve such agreement is to do as your parents agree to. Thus outside "Christian" areas, that came under the rules or influence of Justinian's code (Europe, Russia, North and South America), Japan, China and some other areas (which have adopted similar rules) arrange marriages tend to be the norm. In most cases people marry their cousins so the support group for both Husband and Wife are the same. People who break this rule without support from their blood relatives are treated as traitors in these societies.
Christianity and Islam have tried to change these rules, but with only limited success outside the above areas (and even in Christian Areas you had families that married they cousins in arrange marriages to keep the money within the family).
My point is this is not Islamic in nature, but dates back to the pre Islamic culture of that place.
MariaThinks
(2,495 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I'm gonna see how many known names this thread racks up before the reveal.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)A man expressing a modern liberal opinion killed by a backward dogmatic culture isn't something to sit back and eat popcorn about.
What's up?