‘The right to life of women … is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.’ — Hina Jilani
‘It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity. The details of the murders – of the women beheaded, burned to death, stoned to death, stabbed, electrocuted, strangled and buried alive for the “honor” of their families – are as barbaric as they are shameful.’
‘An honor killing is a murder, carried out by a family to punish a female family member who has supposedly brought dishonor upon the family. The acts which are the cause of dishonor can be
- refusing to enter into an arranged marriage
- being the victim of a sexual assault or rape
- seeking a divorce, even from an abusive husband
- committing adultery or fornication
- pre-marital sex
- falling in love with men outside her tribe
- flirting /chatting with men on facebook
The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that dishonors her family is enough to trigger an attack on her life.’
‘Men often use honor killings to maintain their dominant patriarchal status. 
Women in the family often support the practice in order to preserve the honor of male family members. Patriarchy is a system in which both men and women participate. It privileges the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women.’
‘Honor killing most likely originates from the belief that a woman’s chastity is the property of her families, a patriarchal culture that comes from ancient Assyrian tribes of 1200 B.C. A woman, who was considered by the tribes to be a machine for making men, was forced through honor killing to obey the husband’s family and not to reproduce outside of the tribe or the extended family. In Babylonian societies, women accused of adultery were forced to throw themselves into a river to prove they were innocent. In ancient Egyptian culture, imprisonment, flogging, or mutilation were common punishments for women who had been convicted of adultery. In ancient Chinese culture husbands cut off the hair of adulterous women and then lead them to their death by an elephant trained to kill. Some Native American tribes punished adulterous women by cutting off their limbs and mutilating their bodies. In Persia, adulterous women were pushed into a well and left to die. ‘
More than 20,000 women are killed each year because of honor based violence.
10,000 women get killed each year in the name of honor in Pakistan.
‘The practice of honor killings goes across cultures and across religions. It had been practiced in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Lebanon,Iraq, Brazil, Ecuador, Uganda etc. In many countries, murdering female family members in the name of honor is NOT considered a crime. In some countries honor killing is like a crime of passion, a crime often not punishable. In Pakistan, the practice of honor killing is supposed to be prosecuted under ordinary killing, but in practice police and prosecutors often ignore it and often a man simply claim the killing was for his honor and he will go free. In Syria, men can kill female relatives in a ‘crime of passion’ as long as it is not premeditated. It is legal for a husband to kill his wife in Jordan if he catches her committing adultery. Crime of passion can be a full or partial defense in countries like Argentina, Iran, Guatemala, Egypt, Israel, Peru, etc.’
Honor killings take place in Western countries (UK, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA) among immigrant communities. Rape, acid attack are part of honor crimes.
These are just some informations. Another important information is Honor killing incidents are increasing rapidly all over the world.
There is no honor in killing. But women are still oppressed, tortured and killed everyday in the name of religion, patriarchy, tradition, culture, custom, family honor etc.etc. etc.
Men must stop exploiting, abusing and killing women in the name of hundreds of thousands of bullshit.
In killing their women they’ve killed off any ‘honour’ they may have had.
Absolutely.
Taslima, I ask this honestly, looking for options, how can I, a man from America help in lessening these types of killings? I really do wish to help but I wouldn’t even know where to start.
Thanks. You can help raise awareness.
Thanks for that background information on ‘honour killings’.
I suppose when many of us think of these crimes we instinctively think of Islam, but we don’t always recognise that ‘honour killings’ predates it.
I suppose what religion has done is taken this practice and given it gods seal of approval, effectively locking it into a religious practice, therefore making it ‘untouchable’.
It is also interesting to read that some Native American tribes practised honour based crimes. And that is a culture which grew independently of those Babylonian societies.
Do they really think that killing someone will show enough disapproval that it will restore the family’s reputation? I get that doing certain things (as harmless as they may be by our standards) doesn’t shed a good on the family. Maybe they are perceived to have allowed and and not prevented it. But it’s not like killing the offender will erase what happened
So despite being a gay man who fully cognizant of his priviledge and has worked for decades promoting women’s rights, I am still automatically an oppressor solely by virtue of my genitalia?
Gregory, that’s a ridiculous notion. Why would you even go there?
Gregory, You’re just being petty now. We ALL KNOW the majority of crimes – domestic abuse, rape, honour crimes – committed against women are perpetuated by men.
*rolls eyes*
Again, Haslima, you use huge chunks of quotes without identifying their origin or author.
If I wanted to discuss or dispute those assertions, you give me no place to start. Just large chunks of unverifiable ownerless words.
You know this is quite interesting. I don’t know what’s going on here, but when Greta Christina & Co. make assertions they are never asked for reference links.
They just harp on regardless. Usually about crap!
Martyn, I don’t understand, it was you who wrote:
Badmouthing Greta seems pointless, why do it?
Anyway, it would have been helpful for Taslima to identify sources like Robert Fisk (“It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity…”), not least of all because those sources contain important details and cases which can help to educate us about these horrific crimes. They also put some names to a few of those countless victims.
Yes Bernard, I have enjoyed many of Greta’s writing’s. Usually the are crisp and clear.
My point is other writer’s here on FTB’s – Greta too – make assertions about things all the time.
Wasn’t it Greta who recently wrote about the majority of prostitutes loving their work?
I saw no cries for references for this claim.
You ask why I bad mouth? It’s because I never could stand hypocrisy.
Martyn, you’re off the mark here. When quoting large paragraphs of other people’s text, citation is mandatory, even more so than when quoting an individual statistic or short statement.
What other people do on other blogs is irrelevant, they should be tasked with sourcing their posted material just as much.
‘When quoting large paragraphs of other people’s text, citation is mandatory, even more so than when quoting an individual statistic or short statement.’
I’ll accept this.
Thanks for the clarification.
@3: “It is also interesting to read that some Native American tribes practised honour based crimes.”
Without a cited source, we have no way to verify this, or see if it was most of the tribes, many of the tribes, or a few of them.
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00080546/00001/1j http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/72/9/1/105.pdf
Thanks. I’ll read them later today.
Every case you hear about in the North American media where a “distraught” man “snaps” and kills his partner or ex-partner because of divorce or (even more horrifyingly, disability), where an abusive partner tracks down his former partner and murders her (or murders her before she can leave), where a serial killer murders prostitutes because they are prostitutes, these are also “honour killings.” North Americans just like to pretend our culture doesn’t do any such thing anymore. Granted, our patriarchal enforcers prefer terrorism by rape culture and verbal intimidation, but death is not out of the question.
I think you focus too much on the crimes. Yes, it is the crimes that stir passions but it is the concept of tribal and individual male honor, and the very selective calculus of honor, that is the corrosive agent that manifests itself through violence against women. Honor is the shield that lend self-righteous indignation to the abuse of women.
One aphorism seen on this forum has it that: Good people will do good things, and bad people bad, But for good people to do bad things requires religion.
The same people who stone and attack women with acid over the abstract concept of honor wouldn’t stand for stoning or acid attacks if they were not excused and justified by honor. It is the concept of honor that obscures the plain and simple facts of the situation and keeps people from seeing it for what it is, a vicious and violent attack.
The problem is not violence in and of itself, it is the excuse systems of honor and religion that are the problem. Systems of thought and social norm that allow violence to be committed. That allow the perpetrator to feel justified and the surrounding society to think it acceptable. It is the honor and religion, with its blinding and inebriating effects upon society that has to be removed.
Remove them and you eliminate the social validation of the rage felt by a man feeling shorted by women. You will not eliminate the rage but you will stop the reinforcing of it by the surrounding society and when/if the person acts of their rage the society will be able to identify the act for what it is, a crime.
I’m curious about the woman in the photo. Is she a victim of an acid attack, or a survivor of a murder attempt by burning?
She was attacked after a marriage refusal. http://bit.ly/HQR6Pe
Taslima have you been able to view the short documentary film that won an academy award this year called “Saving Face”? I haven’t seen it yet but it is about the doctors who have worked to help women whose faces have been disfigured in acid attacks. Here is a link with some information about the film.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/08/entertainment/la-et-saving-face-20120308
Maybe if it get circulated enough it will raise some awareness of these horrible crimes against women.
Gruesome text on honour killings, although an interesting read. I’m not sure if however the “honour” part of the killings is more than just a carte-blanch to male violence in these societies.
I agree that more citations would help. For example, the point about honour killing incidents increasing rapidly all over the world seems like it might be a bit more complicated than that. There are lots of ways to interpret that statement and without sources we don’t know which is the appropriate one, even before we begin to look at whether it’s true.
Ten thousand in Pakistan? That’s more than half the US homicide count per year! And the US has less than twice as many people as Pakistan! I wonder what Pakistan’s total homicide rate is.
Folks,
I am a 21 year old woman. Reading about women getting killed for yes, bullshit reasons makes me want to go out and do something about it. I created a mental picture of these women that are living here in our own land, being slaughtered for the honor of crime and you sit there arguing about quotations and the wrong comma here, if this is really how our ciber world works, we are going No Where. How about creating a plan to Stop this tragedy for the sake of women. All these nonsense arguments..
omg why are they killing other people that are innocent buht mostly your own family and your love who would do this this is just sad
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This is the most disgracefull thing i’ve seen in many days… I mean… If they were real men… They would not be killing their own women (not as they belonged to them, BUT they belong to the same familiar nucleus)(a muscularily weaker person, and sadly, castrated in many ways because of their fuckingly savage “culture”, even the right to live is taken away because they behave as the people they are, commiting “flaws” and “errors” inherited in human nature, is some kind of massively supid belief)…
I wish i was a superhero i would stop this nonsence .
The institution of marriage it self is a semi slavery for women who are supposed to clean homes, wash clothes, cook food, take care of children. With times it should change. In present times if the minds of humans get enlightened then all these responsibilities should be shared equally by law. All children( boys and girls) throughout the world should be provided with free education up to the level they can and given equal opportunities in employment. For a change for few decades all girls should get the bridegroom to their homes, to reverse the tradition unfair to the fair sex. This all can happen if the money, material, resources, research efforts and persons are not wasted on artificial doctrines on one GOD and on artificial national boundaries and created tribes. The wrongs of thousands of years need correction. Keep going Taslima – God is speaking through you, you are blessed and will remain blessed.
ma`am ,I`m from india and totally against this patriarchial society and they must know that without women humans are nothing but a wild beast just having two foots instead of four and some unused thing in head called brain. . i literally hate this opressive mindset
There is no honor in killing another person. What is even more appalling is that these men level charges against their wives so they can marry younger women.
I have no words for this
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