Cutting Loose

First broadcast April 2005

What happens when the ties that bind us unravel, when marriage and family begin to fall apart? How do people cut loose and start again?

In this four-part series, Vera Frankl explores this universal issue through the experiences of four families in very different societies in Egypt, Pakistan, Sweden and California.

Part 1: Pakistan

In Pakistan, the simple act of seeking a divorce can spell death for women.

Here, as is the case elsewhere in parts of Asia and the Middle East, traditional concepts of male honour and female subservience are deeply ingrained.

Vera hears the tragic story of 29-year-old Samia Sarwar, a middle class law student from Lahore, who wanted to divorce her abusive husband.

Four years ago she was shot dead on her parent's orders, because they believed she had shamed them by seeking a divorce.

No action has been taken against her parents, and her death failed to create a widespread outcry. Since her death, dozens of similar cases have come to light.

We hear from two eyewitnesses to her murder, and from other women hiding in a refuge in Lahore because they have dared to initiate divorce.

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