Honour Killing : An Evil Of Society

In certain communities in South Asia, the low status of girls has to be compensated for by the payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes, including mental and physical torture, starvation, rape, and even the burning alive of women by their husbands and/or in-laws in cases where dowry payments are not met.

Empirical evidence shows that Muslim culture is highly religious and there is little distinction between religion and leadership. The leaders are governed by religious doctrines in handling their tasks, and thus, the various regulations that govern morality and other activities in the society draw heavily from the Koran teachings. Therefore, it can be argued that the honor killings are made in the name of God as Allah is righteous and expects his people to be clean (Awwad 54). Any act that may bring sins to a family should be eradicated to maintain righteousness before the eyes of Allah. Consequently, a man takes the responsibility of ensuring that morality is upheld in the society by killing the disgraceful characters in defense of the religion. However, there is another category of people who believe that honor killings are just societal a code that is based on the interest of discouraging infidelity and sex before marriage in the society. A lady who gets married before losing her innocence brings honor to her father and her husband (Faqir 70). Therefore, attempts to maintain the honor makes people engage in honor killings to prevent people from engaging in such sexual activities out of the defined boundaries. Any deviation from expectation willingly or unknowingly leads to dire consequences. For example, a girl who loses

There is no honour in murder” (Monday 23, june 2014) both Dexter Dias and Charlotte Praudman claims that the term ”honour killing” is very offencive towards the survivors and women who suffer and are victims of this horiffc crime. The writers claim that estimated 5.000 women annually are ”honourdly” murderd. Dias and Proudman also write that there is no honour in murder and that the downgrading term must change, two examples that they suggest are ”femicide” and ”shame killing”. These two terms does not make any excuses such as ”honour killing”.

In honor killings, most of the women are killed on the basis of an illicit relationship as specified by their partner or family. Sometimes the killings are carried out for ridiculously pathetic reasons such as failing to serve a meal on time can be seen as a stain on family honor and can lead to woman’s death. In modern time, where the world is revolving around technological advances and the independence of women and gender equality, honor killings have exceeded and are more rampant. While India is indeed a prominent exception to Islam 's near domination on contemporary honor killing cases in the world, Hindu honor killings in India are of different form and command from those of Islamic honor killings. Though no less gruesome, the honor killings in India are mostly confined to the northern states of India. Besides, as Phyllis Chesler and Nathan Bloom state these killings are “perpetuated by sociocultural factors largely specific to India.” As mentioned earlier, in India, honor killing cases are not just limited to women, but they are also extended to men. However, in Pakistan and other Islamic countries, majority of honor killing cases are usually related to female victims, there are hardly any cases of male victims. In India, some of the major motives behind these atrocities are caste-specific motives such as “immoral character” and non-caste-specific illicit relationships. In Pakistan and other Islamic countries, caste purity is not a concern, the motivation behind

The World Health Organization states that globally, about 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner. In the Middle East and other parts of the world, planned domestic homicides, or honor killings, are carried out due to the belief of the perpetrators that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family or community. According to Human Rights Watch, honor killings are generally performed against women for "refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or committing adultery," or exhibiting behavior perceived to have dishonored the family. In some parts of the world, where there is a strong social expectation for a woman to be a virgin prior to marriage, a bride may be subjected to extreme violence, including an honor killing, if she is deemed not to be a virgin on her wedding night due to the absence of blood. Bride burning or dowry killing is a form of domestic violence in which a newly married woman is killed at home by her husband or husband's family due to their dissatisfaction over the dowry provided by her family. The act is often a result of demands for more or prolonged dowry after the marriage. Dowry violence is most common in South Asia, especially in India. In 2011, the National Crime Records Bureau reported 8,618 dowry

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has seen their share of criticism regarding their view of cultures. The Ayaan Hirsi Ali (AHA) Foundation has taken up a stance to do anything within their power to fight for the rights of women worldwide, specifically pertaining to honor violence. There seems to be serious philosophical tension between the AAA and the AHA. In this paper, I will set out to discuss this tension in three ways. The first thing I will do is to try and present the AAA’s position with as much accuracy and charitability as I can. The second thing I will try to do is to apply the AAA’s stance specifically to honor violence. Lastly, I will argue for my view of the AAA’s position. Hopefully, I will offer a compelling case

The article by Meetoo and Miraz define extreme forms of domestic violence, which often lead to the death of a woman at the hands of her loved ones or community. Interestingly, "honour" only arises as a motivation for murder when religion or ethnic communities are involved. In the article, the author asserts that ethicized women (women of colour and other minorities) who are victims of honour killings are unrecognized in both multicultural discussion and domestic violence discussion. Since 9/11, these women have become much more visible, but unfortunately this increased recognition is due to a heightened sense of fear and danger associated with the idea of a "Muslim alien 'other'". By employing an approach focused more on human rights, people

Honor based violence and domestic violence are two common forms of violence that exist in our world today, and they have for many years (Devaney, 2014; Hague, Gill, & Begikhani, 2013; Olwan, 2013). Honor based violence covers a wide variety of violent acts performed by a male relative that are done in order to preserve family honor (Eshareturi, Lyle, & Morgan, 2014), and this type of violence is associated most often with Middle Eastern nations (Belfrage, Strand, Ekman, Hasselborg, 2012; Olwan, 2013; Standish, 2014). Domestic violence is an umbrella term for a variety of actions such as rape, as well as assaults of both the physical and verbal varieties (Policastro, & Payne, 2013). While the rationale and execution of each of these types of violence varies (Chesler, 2010; Eshareturi et al., 2014), there are underlying similarities that exist among both.

The main issue that brought attention to this law was the Singh case, which demonstrates a man murdering his wife, with his first attempt of strangling her, and when that was not successful, he began to slit her throat with a Stanley knife. This degree of violence, alongside his sentencing gives the impression that the judiciary system, courts and parliament partially understood the idea that men should have the authority to violently retaliate to the words of women, which can potentially lead to death. The idea that women ask for violence through their words or actions, and the concept of ‘a crime of passion’ are very outdated, and display the values that societies held when women did not have the same amount of rights, respect and power in

That is why it is important to have an ethnocentric view of Honor Killings so that actions can be taken to stop it. Although Honor Killings are part of the Muslim tradition and culture, it does not mean that they should be accepted as just. As the world progresses and evolves, cultures and traditions must evolve with it; what has been seen as acceptable in the past, is no longer accepted by many cultures throughout the world. Viewing Honor Killings through a cultural relativist position could be detrimental to the women living under these conditions. Thousands of lives could be saved and these women could be given further opportunities to achieve the life they wish to live if people view Honor Killings as

Some factors which may contribute to honor killings stem from biology, specifically from evolutionary drives. One such drive is sexual selection. According to Charles Darwin, animals—including humans—sometimes choose their mates based on certain traits which they find more attractive. In human males, attractive physical traits include tallness and masculinity. Psychological traits may include sexual aggressiveness. This aggressiveness is therefore more likely to be passed down to the next generation and to modern males, making them more likely to assert their control over women (Goldstein, 2002).

Everywhere around the world women and girls are terrorized, mistreated and victims of abuse, rape, and assault. Sadly this kind of treatment towards women and girls is often very common in Asian countries. The article by Gardiner Harris entitled, “Rape of Girl, 5, Draws Focus to Child Assault in India”, talks about how an innocent five year old girl was raped, tortured and almost killed in India. Harris wrote in the article that people demand stricter laws against sex crimes and that there should be more protection for women. In Asia women tend to be less desirable, and are treated with less respect than a man. Harris also claims that news reports are packed with stories about heinous crimes and assaults against women (Gardiner Harris, 2013).

Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks of honor killings and forced marriages in Middle Eastern society in the The AHA Foundation 2nd Annual Conference. She begins with describing her personal situation when she was younger; her arranged marriage to a relative and then her escape to the Netherlands at the age of twenty-two in an effort to avoid this marriage where she was met with an entirely different culture where the pressure of the honor of the family was not forced upon females by both female and male parties within the family. She noted how Dutch women wore what they pleased, failed to have rigid curfews, had romantic relationships as they desired, and did not have to obey their male guardians in every aspect contrary to the adamant regulations imposed on women in the Middle Eastern society she grew up in. She describes how the difference between regular domestic abuse and honor violence is that honor violence is justified by the perpetrator by their culture and religion; they claim they have no other choice because the woman in question defiled the families honor and there was no other option available other than to kill her for the sake of honor. When a woman born in this culture begins to defy her family, the family will either commit an honor killing, or marry the girl off, Ali states. When honor killings are performed they are almost always made to look accidental, and can range from shootings, stranglings, drownings or even beheadings when a point is to be made to other

Honor killings happen when someone, the majority being women and girls, is perceived to have brought shame or disgrace upon her family by choosing to follow through with an action that goes against family customs, traditions or expectations. According to Shelby (2016) these actions can include, engaging in sexual activity or simply conveying a feeling of being sexual with someone of the opposite sex, even if a female is raped, choosing clothing, a job or education, opposing family’s choice for husband and/or wanting to leave or flee a marriage.

An honor killing is the homicide of a member of a family by other members, due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family, or has violated the principles of a community or a religion, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being in a relationship that is disapproved by their family, having sex outside marriage, becoming the victim of rape, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, or engaging in homosexual relations.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing)