Disgust at 'honour killings'
WASEEM SAJJAD, HEAD of the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee in Pakistan was condemned by OUSU Council last Friday, due to the fact that he had blocked Parliamentary debate in Pakistan on a resolution condemning the 'honour killings' of women.
The motion called called for his replacement as Head of the Selection Committee as "a highly effective and resonant way of registering dissatisfaction with the continued abuse of women in parts of Pakistan and its toleration by the Pakistani government."
In 1999 a 29 year-old woman, Samia Sawar, was shot dead in her lawyer's offices by her family. They felt she had brought shame upon them by trying to end a marriage during which she had suffered continued domestic abuse.
The killing caused both international condemnation and uproar in Pakistan, but when a resolution condemning the killings was brought before the Senate Mr Sajjad, a Rhodes Scholar at Wadham in 1966, is alleged to have refused to allow debate or discussion of the issue.
6th Feb 2003