Honour Killing

An honour killing is a murder committed by ones own family of most commonly a female in the house because she has brought shame to the family in one way or another. There are many causes of how one can bring shame to ones family such as committing adultery, fall from chastity, or violate the religious principles in Islamic countries such as Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen. These same types of honour killings occur for fairly similar reasons in India (typically among Hindus).

Honour Killing

Definition

"Honour Killing" is defined by Collins English Dictionary as follows :

noun

1. a murder committed by a male on a female relative considered to have brought dishonour to the family, usually through sexual activity forbidden by religion or tradition

The term “Honour killing” refers to the action of a family member, such as the husband, killing a woman in the family for bringing disgrace on them either through adultery or loss of chastity. There are several cases which have involved honour killing, some of which include having sexual intercourse without marriage, refusing an arranged marriage, being a cause of rape, dressing in inappropriate clothing, and betraying religious belief. An honour killing is usually overtly committed due to the relatively light punishment that those who commit it receive.

History

The Roman statesman Marcus Cato once asserted, "If you catch your wife in adultery, you can kill her with impunity; she, however, cannot dare to lay a finger on you if you commit adultery, for it is the law." At this time in Roman society, a woman’s life was controlled by her father, and this control was transferred over to her husband after marriage. Beliefs on this right to kill was based on the Codes of Hammurabi and Assura. Under the law, Peter Familias [1], women had to be the victims of honour killing. Also, under religious dogmas, an honour killing was accepted as a part of punishment on adultery in many cultures, including Roman, Babylonian, Aztec, and others.

In countries with Islamic law, an honour killing was frequently committed in pre-Islamic times when Arab settlers arrived at the region, who mostly migrated from Babylonian culture. However, it was not done with religious principle since there was no mention about justification of an honour killing, but with the earlier tradition from Ancient Babylonian culture. Therefore, the insistence of using Islamic law to justify their action is false according to Quran or Hadith. Nonetheless, there is a prescription for adultery or extramarital sex both on men and women according to Islamic law. While having sex without marriage ends up with up to 100 lashes, adultery can be punished by deadly stoning, which is not only regulated under Islamic principle but also under other religious laws. In addition, there must be at least four Muslim male witnesses of good character when the punishment is attested.

Statistics

According to the United Nations Population Fund, approximately 5,000 women and girls are estimated to be murdered annually under so-called "Honour killing." According to Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, 1000 honour killings occur each in India and Pakistan, and 12 honour killings occur per year in UK. However, the number above is not perfectly reliable since vast numbers of honour killing cases remain unreported.

Perpetrator & Weapon Distribution

Women were not only abused by one types of perpetrators but also lots of them such as husbands, brothers, close relatives, etc. In additions, the perpetrators abused women in different ways within variety methods were used; axe, stabbing, stick, fire, poisoning, etc.

The Distribution of perpetrators and weapon used for Honour Killing in Pakistan, 2004–07 See Table 1

Table 1

Cases

Women were victimized because of variety absurd reasons. They were killed because of pierceing, dyeing hair into bright colours, going to social events, kissing a boy, asking for divorce, passing a driving test, having a life goal or aspirations after school education and, having electronic device for oneself. These preposterous casues are real that women had to be killed.

There are several cases an honour killing is committed :

Refusal of an arranged marriage

Refusing an arranged marriage is one of the major reasons of honour killing. One of the examples is as below :

Bhawna Yadav(21) was murdered by her parents for marrying a man, Abhishek Seth(24), against her parents' will. When she was sent back to her parents for proper ceremony, she was told that she was engaged to another man by her parents. Next morning, Mr. Seth was informed that she was dead. The victim was killed by her parents in their apartment and cremated at the native village. The parents had been arrested by the police in Delhi. It was shocking because it hardly occurred with middle-class family in big cities like Delhi even though honour killings were common in India.

Sexual intercourse without marriage

Having pre-marital or extra-marital sexual relationship is thought to be dishonour of family. Mostly, it is prescribed with severe lashes but there are a number of victims of honour killing. One of the examples is as below :

A 17-year-old girl, Phool Jahan, wass beheaded by her two brothers, Gul Hasan, 25, and Nanhe, 20, for having sexual relationship with her cousin, Mohammad Achchan. Her brothers beheaded their sister in front of cousin's house and paraded it around the village for an hour. They said they don't regret what they have done during the incident, and, according to an eyewitness, Nanhe said "We cannot allow our daughters or sisters to do an affair. Whatever we did is to give a lesson to the people to be alert about any such happening in their families. No girl should dare to repeat such an act in the area. We have no regrets for whatever we did."

Being a cause of rape

There are several cases of honour killing in a reason of being a victim of rape. It is considered to disgrace the family honour by being a trigger of rape. One of the examples is as below :

Libyan women and girls who became pregnant through rape suffer from the risk of being a victim of honour killing. Family justifies themselves by saying "Killing with love." and "For the moment pregnancies can be disguised, but not for much longer. Many fathers will kill their own daughters if they find out they have been raped."

Inappropriate clothing

Refusal to wear the appropriate clothes can be one trigger of honour killings. One of the examples is as below:

16-year-old girl, Aqsa Parvez, was murdered by her father, Muhammad Parvez(57), and her brother, Waqas(26). Her friends said that she had to go through hard time with her family because she didn't want to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf. Before her death, she was trying to overcome the conflict with her family.

Marrying someone of a lower caste

Getting married to someone that is from a different caste, especially lower, is thought to be dishonour to the family. Although the caste system was much more prominent in the past, of the families that still believe in it today, take it very seriously and it can result in honour killings. One of the examples is as below :

A 24 year old woman, Jaswinder "Jassi" Kaur Sidhu from a rich family in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, was the victim of an honour killing in 2000. She went to India and fell in love with a man, Mithoo, a poor rickshaw driver and they secretly got married behind her parent's back. Her mom and uncle found out and had the young couple brutally beat, with Jassi found dead and Mithoo left to die.The police have found proof that although she was sitting in Maple Ridge at the time, Jassi's mother was in constant communication with the killers and gave the final order to slit her throat along with a payment of roughly $10,000. "

Methods

Honour Killings are mostly highly organized and decided throughout the family meeting process. In this case, the honour killing is thoroughly planned from beginning to end. On the other hand, it is frequently committed on the spur of the moment as a lot of cases shown above. Since they are mostly planned or committed by family members, it is rarely possible for victims to be protected by mainstream domestic violence services. Furthermore, it is even more tragic that lots of cases remain unreported because the authorities of several countries try to hush up the incidents.

Victims

Notable victims of honour killings (incomplete) :

1. Shafia sisters ; Zainab (19), Sahar(17), Geeti(13)
2. Palestina Isa (16)
3. Methal Dayem (22)
4. Lubaina Bhatti Ahmed (39)
5. Farah Khan (5)
6. Jawinder"Jassi" Kaur (25)
7. Shahpara Sayeed (33)
8. Marlyn Hassan (29)
9. Amandeep Singh Atwal (17)
10. Hatice Peltek (39)
11. Aqsa Parvez (16)
12. Amina Said (17)
13. Sarah Said (18)
14. Fauzia Mohammed (19)
15. Sandeela Kanwal (25)
16. Surjit Athwal (27)
17. Rukhsana Naz (19)
18. Fadime Sahindal (32)
19. Heshu Yones (16)
20. Sobane Benziane (17)
21. Hina Saleem (21)
22. Morsal Obeid (16)

Books Relate Honour Killing

• Murder in the Name of Honour: The True Story of One Woman's Heroic Fight Against an Unbelievable Crime
  
  • Author: Rana Husseini
    

• A Thousand Splendid Suns
  
  • Author: Khaled Hosseini
    

• Without Honour: The True Story of the Shafia Family and the Kingston Canal Murders
  
  • Author: Rob Tripp
    
• 'Honour' Killing and Violence
  
  • Author: Palgrave Macmillan

• Justice for Jassi
  
  • Authors: Dawson Fabian, Sewak Singh Harbinder, and Jupinderjit Singh
    

See Also

• Killing Us Softly
• Rape Culture
• Gender Discrimination in China
• women's movement in asia
• Gender Discrimination and Feminism