Honor-Killing

In India, a lot of families and communities kill their sons and daughters illegally if they go against the tradition by marrying someone from a different community, caste, background etc. If the families do not approve of the bride or the groom and the couple still decides to go ahead with the relationship, the families show no mercy in taking their life for keeping up their illusionary status in the society. It's 21st century and such practices are still prevalent in today's world. In my opinion, only good education can help end such practices.

In this poetic-story, I try to paint a picture about how it all begins and how it all ends.

---

Let me tell you a story,
His name was Rajveer and her name was Afreen.
He was 21 and Afreen was 19.
They were legally allowed to marry,
no legal barriers
but problems popped out,
they were the target and sources were various.

The community was dominantly Hindu.
Though the Muslims abode, they were very few.

When they talked about their decision to marry at home,
Afreen was locked up and Rajveer was shut up,
Then they called a Panchayat on Friday at a quarter to 3,
under the big thick Banyan Tree.
The decision was obvious -
Rajveer was asked to flee
with his history
packed in a bag called mystery
by morning 9 with Rupees 300 as fine, you see.

He disagreed and raised his voice against the decision,
It was his legal right but it was against the tradition.
They loved each other which got them to this position,
they wanted to be together but they were heading for a division.

See, Rajveer was smart and literate; he knew the laws,
but non one heard him, his voice was limited to his jaws.
So, looking at the sky, he took a pause
then silently left the village after paying the fine that night,
without even meeting Afreen, that night.
Then he walked through the fog, out of my sight.

Months passed, Afreen was still waiting,
while her parents were debating,
they wanted her to get married to a Muslim, soon
Before the following week's cresent Moon.

So, they got her a boy from a good family
but Afreen didn't want to give up on Rajveer,
she went out to test her caliber-
On the wedding night, behind many Hijabs
was one face of Afreen; she ran away from her wedding
Surprisingly, on the other end - Rajveer was waiting

They got in a car and went away from the village
when people came to know, they took it as a pillage

The so called wise and respected men in the male dominated society,
form a group and take decisions, wanted to be treated as diety,
Yes, there are cops but people fear Khaps instea of cops
for, cops in front of Khaps are just powerless bosses - their loyal dogs

The meaning of Khap is a group, supposed to be Republic
But the truth to be told is so ugly -
Mostly prevalent in the northern region of India
The people of uppermost castes, are the Khaps in here
They decide what is to be done
and the decisions they take are mostly not in the constitution.

When asked, they say it's a spoken constitution,
they don't back down, they create unnecessary confusion.
I'm not blaming all the Khaps, some might be good too
But I'm sorry, I can't paise Hundreds just because of one or two.

Now, getting back to the story
The Khap put some men to search;
asking about the car colors and such
to bring back Rajveer and Afreen.

About a week later, they found them.
They hadn't gotten too far,
The men brought them back then.
Now, in front of the Khap,
the cops saw the couple being taken illegally
but the corrupts didn't move an inch to solve the misery.

The men with guns pointing at the heads of the couple in a Jeep,
covered the road to the village which was plain and steep.
After about two hours complete,
the gunmen got down
near a cliff with no one around,
they pulled Rajveer and Afreen,
Near the forest cliff evergreen.

They rook Rajveer near the end of the cliff
Looking below 100ft, every breath on the land was a bliss
The gunmen took Afreen away from Rajveer but he could still see her
and vice versa
Now the evil gunmen started raping Afreen,
Threatened that if she defended, they'd push Rajveer.
So, they raped Afreen and kicked Rajveer,
She faced the scene so obscene
while injured Rajveer couldn't even lean.

Then, they took both of them and went back to the village,
parents waiting to kill their own children felt like caught bullets
The gunmen said, "They were trying to escape,
so we were just trying to put them back in place".
The couple awestruck in disgust gasped,
they said that the gunmen raped and beat them
and that the gun-men's words were fake

But the Khap was already after the couple,
So, they never listened to the words of the double,
Rajveer was badly injured, could have hardly survived a day more,
broken body - they still didn't show any mercy.
They dragged him to the middle of the crowd,
they killed him for they wanted to punish him.

This was set as a message to all the villagers,
that men in Khap were the legitimate killers.

Seeing this, Afreen couldn't live,
she ran to the body without life
and killed herself with the same knife.
Two bodies laying aside on the same night.

No more criminals, for the definition was different
The educated killed by the uneducated for being educated
and for not following the so called rules of the Khap.
This kind of story is true my friends, false they're not.

Not for reproduction
-isteemit

---

If you liked my work, follow me here.

Thank you for reading!