Most of the rural areas in Pakistan are still controlled by tribal chieftains who have their own interpretation of Islam. Some of them believe that a woman talking to a male stranger (or even a distant male relative) is guilty of adultery. A woman refusing to marry the man selected by her father or brothers or marrying a man of her choice is killed immediately.
A few days back a woman and her husband were killed for doing so. Both had been married, she may have been a widow, and she already had children. The couple were told that they had been forgiven and were invited to come back to their village, but of course they should have known they were doomed. I'll never forget what the woman said to the man (her brother) who was about to kill her, "You are allowed only to shoot me", perhaps she feared being stoned to death. It was shocking to hear her mother proclaim publicly that her daughter deserved to be killed. Apparently these women have so many children that they don't regret losing one or two.
As a contractor I used to come in contact with Baloch men frequently. One of my workers once told me, "We're not cowards like you city folk, if our wives even hint at wanting a divorce, we shoot them". When I received a wedding invitation card from a Baloch contractor which didn't mention the name of the bride and asked the reason, I was told, "If a male stranger gets to know the name of my daughter, I can only assume that she's been intimate with him, so I have to kill her". Perhaps this is the reason why even some Memons nowadays don't print the names of their brides on wedding cards, they print "daughter of so and so".
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