32 Years After Attack, Pakistani Woman Gets Nose After six years of abuse, Allah Rakhi was walking out of her marriage when her husband struck again. Snatching a knife, he sliced off her nose. "You're no longer beautiful!" he shouted. He then slashed at her foot - brutal punishment for leaving the house without his permission. "A woman is only a woman inside the home, outside she's a whore!" he yelled at Rakhi as she lay bleeding on the dusty street just outside her home. That was 32 years ago. All that time, Rakhi hid her disfigured face under a veil. Then in March, a surgeon took up her case. He cut flesh from her ribs and fashioned it into a new nose, transforming her life. While the details of every case of violence against Pakistani woman differ, many are based on a concept of "family honor." Women can be targeted for suspicion of an affair, wishing to divorce or dressing inappropriately. Hundreds women are murdered each year because of mere suspicions. The nose is considered the symbol of family honor in Pakistan - explaining why a woman's nose is often the target of spousal abuse. A popular plea from parents to children is "Please take care of our nose," which means, "don't do anything that tarnishes the reputation of the family." Rooted in tribal ideas that a woman's chastity is the property of the man, honor killings are practiced in much of the Arab world and South Asia. They have also been carried out by immigrants from those regions to the West. In this Thursday, May 10, 2012 photo, Pakistani Allah Rakhi, 51, whose nose was sliced by her husband, adjusts her scarf at her home in Thatha Pira, near Gujranwala, Pakistan. Allah Rakhi's husband sliced of her nose and right foot with a razor in 1980, when she was 19. The nose has special significance in Pakistani culture, where it symbolizes the honor of the family. A popular plea from parents to children is "Please take care of our nose," which means "don't do anything that tarnishes the name of the family." (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) Close Pakistani courts have a history of letting off offenders or giving them only light punishment, assuming the cases get to trial at all. Rakhi's husband, for example, served just 10 months in jail before being released in exchange for a commitment to pay her medical bills. He never did. Accurate statistics on the extent of honor crimes are hard to come by, because many cases go unreported or are settled out of court under pressure from the families of the victim and the attacker. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in 2011, at least 943 women were murdered, nine had their noses cut off, 98 were tortured, 47 set on fire and 38 attacked with acid. Efforts to introduce stronger laws to increase punishments for violence against women have been blocked by an Islamist political party which publicly supports the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. The party, Jamiat Ulema Islam, is a member of the ruling coalition. The lower houses of parliament passed the bill, but the JUI is preventing its passage through the upper house. "We will never let it happen," said JUI senator Maulana Ghafoor Haideri, who said the bill was an attempt to "Westernize" Pakistan. "It will ruin our family institutions," he said. Shad Begum, a Pakistani right activists who received the U.S. International Woman of Courage award from first lady Michelle Obama this year, said firmer laws and better enforcement are the only solution to violence against woman. "Our leaders need to take a firm stand," she said. If a man makes a woman a victim, or makes an 'example out of her' as he believes, our courts should also make an example out of him. Rakhi was attacked when she was 19, after being married at 13. Despite being illegal, child marriages remain common in parts of Pakistan. Following the attack, she worked to support herself and her daughter, painting flowers on pots in a factory and buying and selling clothes in markets across the country, all the time hidden behind a veil.