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Samia Sarwar (1970-6 April 1999) was a Pakistani Pukhtun woman, who was shot dead in her lawyers' office in Lahore in an "honor killing." Samia Sarwar was a married woman with two children, belonging to an affluent family. She claimed to have suffered marital abuse and eloped with Nadir Mirza, an army office, leaving her children behind with her husband and in-laws. The runaway couple travelled from Peshawar to Lahore. After a few days of cohabitation at a five-star hotel, Nadir Mirza returned to Peshawar, because absence without leave from his army job could get him court-martialed. Samia then sought the help of Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani, two Lahore-based sisters who are both well-known left wing Feminists and lawyers. Shortly afterwards, at a meeting between Samia and her mother at their chambers in Lahore, Samia was shot dead by an assassin hired by her own parents. The murder was arranged by Samia's own mother, father and aunt (her mother's sister, who was also her mother-in-law). This was because of the shame they felt she had brought upon the family by eloping with another man, abandoning her children, and making allegations of marital abuse to justify her actions. ==Background== Samia Sarwar was born into an affluent and educated family based in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province. Her father, Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand, was not only a successful industrialist but also a prominent public figure, being the President of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce.〔〔(Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chamber of commerce former Presidents 2002-2003 )〕 Her mother, Sultana Sarwar, was a doctor with a successful practice in Peshawar. Samia had been married several years to a cousin, her mother's sister's son, when she fell in love with an army captain named Nadir Mirza. She filed a suit for divorce on the grounds that she was suffering violence and abuse. She filed the divorce papers in court secretly and then moved immediately to her parents' house, along with her children, supposedly for a brief visit. The reason given for the visit was that her children were enjoying school vacations and it was usual at this time for them to spend a few weeks with their grandparents. Once in her parents' house, she told them that she had already filed for divorce, and sought their support in the project of divorcing her husband and marrying Nadir Mirza. Upon their shocked refusal to support any such venture, and when it became clear that her parents were implacably opposed to the scheme, she abandoned her children and eloped with Nadir, one fine evening, despite her unfinalized divorce.〔 From Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the runaway couple travelled overnight to Lahore in Punjab province. There, they stayed for some days at a five-star hotel, befitting Samia's affluent background, while her parents grew frantic in Peshawar. However, Samia and Nadir soon ran out of money, and Samia contacted some distant relatives, who lived in Lahore, to seek a loan. She did this in the knowledge that those relatives would be unaware of her elopement, since her family (from a sense of shame) would not have revealed the matter to anyone. However, the fact that she seemed to be alone in Lahore, and was asking for money, raised a red flag in the minds of those relatives. They phoned Samia's parents in a casual way and mentioned in passing that they were advancing the required money to Samia. This resulted in the whole matter becoming known, and the relatives told Samia's parents the name and location of the five-star hotel where she was staying. Samia's parents immediately contacted Samia by phone and had an extremely stormy argument with her. They threatened her with dire consequences if she did not come back quietly, and also told her that if she came back immediately, the matter could still be hushed up, because they had not yet told anybody of the elopement. Above all, they told her to think about her children and their future. At this point, Nadir Mirza returned to his work as an army captain in Peshawar, mindful that the Pakistani military took an extremely dim view of their officers cavorting with married women, and that he might even face a court martial. With money running short and no support forthcoming from relatives or others, either of money or shelter, Samia took refuge in ''Dastak,'' a shelter for women in Lahore. She particularly chose ''Dastak'' because that shelter was run by Asma Jehangir, a left wing activist who had made it her life's mission to help as many women escape abusive marriages. At ''Dastak,'' Samia knew she would receive not just food and shelter but also free legal counsel and active support for her wish to break up her marriage and marry Nadir Mirza. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Samia Sarwar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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