World News
18 Year-Old Pakistani Woman Burned Alive for Rejecting Marriage Proposal
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ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani police official says a female teacher has died after being beaten and set on fire for refusing a marriage proposal from a man twice her age.
Rafaqat Abbasi, her uncle said the perpetrators beat 18 year-old Maria Abbasi then drenched her in petrol and set her body ablaze before leaving her for dead.
Maria a school teacher was at home baby-sitting her 5-year-old sister while her family went to a funeral in a nearby town.
Her uncle said that after being brought to a hospital in Islamabad, Maria told police that relatives of the school principal attacked her for refusing the proposal from his son.
Such attacks are not uncommon in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called “honor killings” for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.