Nevin Yildirim's Honor

The societal codes contained in the Hammurabi’s laws that were used to govern the conduct of people in the community presents the husband as having absolute power over life and death in his family. As a result, since 6000BC, women were exposed to too much brutality from men in case they engaged in immoral acts (Madek 53). Women were supposed to remain faithful to their husbands and to maintain their innocence until they become married. Any sexual irregularity resulted in severe punishments to the victim, which includes honor killings of wife and daughters by the husband. However, for many decades since the establishment of the Muslim world, honor killings have been popular among the Muslims. The Islamic law grants man the powers to punish his wife for infidelity but denies the wife similar rights. Consequently, women usually find themselves victims of sexual misconduct in the society. The honor of a family is determined by the honor of ladies, and thus, they are expected to maintain high moral standards and laxity to engage in indiscriminate

Honour killing is the act of murdering someone, especially a woman, who is believed to have bought dishonour to the family. People can be killed for adultery, refusal of entry into an arranged marriage, dressing ways deemed inappropriately by their community, having homosexual relations, and becoming a victim of rape. They can be killed. Though honour killings aren't as common as they used to be, they're still occurring. This is why people are hurting.

The fact remains that this is a product of misogyny in their cultures we still see in contemporary society. Due to this, women are viewed as the paragons and upholders of their societies’ virtues, as biological reproducers of national and ethnic groups, agents for transmitting national culture and ideology, cultural symbols of purity and national housekeepers. This is in stark contrast to men who are illustrated as protectors of their nation’s honour and as warriors; in retrospect, war is waged to humiliate and, in some cases, destroy the foundation of the opposing nation’s society. Men, the primary defenders of their nation in hindsight are expendable, while they may die, their culture and society will live on through their women who will go on to transmit their genes and culture through the children they bear. Because women represent the three pillars of the home and not one; it is more efficient to target women, not only to demoralise the opposing enemy troops, but to consequently change the genetic make-up and otherwise culture of the society the women live in. This act of humiliation not only scars the women and emasculates the men, but their society as a whole. Hence, targeting women through rape, although grotesquely immoral highlights the effectiveness of rape as a method in which to carry out wars closely affiliated with

The public display of sexual crimes committed against WSV victims has yet another aspect to compound the consequences of their rape and captivity. The associated media articles, almost always very detailed in nature, arouse issues in regards to the cultural notions of honor. In honor-based societies, such as the Yezidi community and many communities in Nigeria, women and girls carry a heavy burden of upholding the honor of the family, clan and tribe. One way in which honor is lost is through sexual relations outside the context of a family-approved marriage, whether consensual or through rape. The injury of rape among women and girls in an honor based society, is often compounded by violence related to her loss of honor and therefore family status. Honor killings in the Yezidi community have occurred in the past (Hague et al, 2013) and the fear is that not only will girls and women who return from ISIS captivity have the psychological and physical problems associated with sexual assault, but will be shunned or even killed because they are in violation of their community’s cultural standards. Nigerian women and girls are also at risk for so called honor killings and face many of the shame consequences of public shaming and being ostracized from their family and communities following rape (Caprioli et al, 2009).

In the episode of Herod, Herodias, and the daughter, there is a certain type of honor-shame interaction that occurred. The honor-shame interaction that is seen here was how the King heard about Jesus bringing back John the Baptizer. The king believed that it must have been a miracle work in the act of the prophet Isaiah. When Herod found out about this, he knew that he previously had John arrested, and put in a dungeon to suffer. Herodias, Herod’s brothers Philip’s wife, had a grudge with John the baptizer and wanted to have John killed, but she knew it would be hard with Herod being very afraid of John. Herod was celebrating a festival and he sees the daughter and asks, “ Ask me for whatever you wish and I’ll grant it to

There are many ways that honour killings are a breach of human rights, including the right to life, liberty, and to pursue happiness, the right to recognition as a person before the law, and freedom from torture, and degrading treatment. Honour killings are the murder of women because they have been perceived to dishonour a family in some way, and by killing them, their family honour is restored. It is prevalent in countries like Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Mostly occurs in countries where the majority religion is Muslim, and they believe that it is okay to kill family members. Can also occur in South and Eastern Asian countries.

The cultural interpretation explains that honor killings are “qualitatively different from other kinds of murders because it is governed by ‘the specific logic of an honour culture’”. Honor killings are acceptable because they are part of a culture and support ethical agendas. For example, in Turkey, “namus” represents sexual honor which overshadows women’s physical and moral qualities. Women are expected to protect their “namus” for their whole life. Male kin also have a duty to watch over women and punish them if they deviate.

According to Article 409 of the Iraq Penal Code; men, specifically only men, have the right to kill if “he [finds] his wife or one of his female dependents in a state of adultery.” This is the exact law that is used in cases of the honor killings. The men who committed the crime will then receive a maximum of three years in jail, if they are caught, for the honor killing (Bayoumy). Honor killings are not just socially accepted they are also ignored, as though they are not occurring, by the law. In the case of Du’a Khalil Aswad whose death, which was recorded on a cell phone camera, was posted on the media, in the video it can be seen that the police are just watching instead of helping (Four Years On). The police are citizens of Iraq and therefore they are taught the same values of the culture that people who participate in honor killings are taught. Because of that even the police view honor killings are acceptable and feel no need to step in to intervene. While women are trying to call question to this law, it is still in place because of the fact that honor is regarded as a high priority in Iraq and without honor killings there is no way to restore honor to a family name that has been dishonored.

One of the first situations she learned about was two sisters who were murdered by their brother. The two sisters were rumored to have been killed because of their large inheritance, while others believed it was because one got married to a man without the family's knowledge. Because of Article 98 and his mother dropping the charges, he had a ridiculously short jail sentence for the crime he committed. Article 98 states “...that any person who commits a crime in a fit of fury caused by an unlawful or dangerous act on the part of the victim benefits from a reduction in penalty” (The Jordan Times). Most of the time, family murderers will receive a reduction in sentence because the charges are dropped, usually because the third member helped to plan the killing or at least gave approval. As a result, the average sentence for these types of killings are about 10-20 years. These crimes can be committed for different reasons, even just out of suspicion. Thousands of women are killed based on rumors, lies, and suspicions just so the family honor can be preserved. Some women are killed after being raped because they are “no longer intact” (Husseini 101), making them impure and destroying the family honor. Another horrific article, Article 308 (not talked about in Husseini’s book), “allows

Honor becomes an obsession and “a biased scale both men and women use to judge all women.” The problem with honor killings has to do with “domination, power and hatred of women”. They are seen as servants to the family-physically and sexually.

The former comfort women did not speak out because in Korea there were and continue to be standards in place for women’s virginity that are not in place for men. There is evidence up to the 16th century that during times of foreign invasion women would commit suicide to avoid being raped. The women who killed themselves as punishment for their loss of chastity after being raped were considered honorable and some even received post-mortem recognition by state officials. The importance of chastity continues till this day with the rise of what the Koreans call “family destroying criminals”. This term describes men who commit criminal acts like robberies and then rape a woman in front of their family in order to not be reported. They are called “family destroying” because the psychological strain of dealing with the crime as well as the rape can break up the family (Chunghee

Honor killings are a family collaboration (Chesler2010). Worldwide, two-thirds of the victims were killed families of origin. Murder by the family of origin was at its highest (72percent) in the Muslim world and at its lowest in North America (49). European families of origin were involved almost as often as those in the Muslim world, possibly

Anahita, was a fourteen-year-old young girl from Iraq. Her brother was killed by terrorist group, and she was left with her parents and a younger brother. Anahita’s family could not even afford to buy food, and loved in old, destroyed ownerless house. One day, Anahita was forced to marry a forty- six-year-old man named Naseefa by her parents. She denied to marry the him, but, she did not have a choice. Anahita’s family sold her to forty- six old man to marry him. Naseefa was already married to four wives while Anahita got married to him. She was abused by Naseefa, his wives, and his parents. Anahita was also raped by Naseefa sons. She did not have right to speak up about her rapists or she did not have anyone to asked for help. She ran away from her husband, but unfortunately, she was caught back by her husband’s servants. She was brought back to Naseefa, and he cut her nose and her fingers for punishments. Anahita was ashamed by her husband family and they called her airhead,slut, and the devilious during her punishment. Many of the bystanders were watching Anahita dying without any mercy. She was left with pain and in the blood pool without any medical treatment. Should Anahita be receiving these punishments for running away? Why can’t she speak up for herself and was it society 's fault? She did not have choices unless to kill herself. Women’s rights are not practiced in Society; yet, should adjust its view of femininity. Women’s rights are being violated by

One particular article was about a girl. Eight years old, she was just beginning to grow. That is until she was raped by a neighbor and taken into police custody for protection against her parents, who want to kill her because of her dishonorable impurity (The Oppressed of Afghanistan). In a way the girl was lucky; most cases of abuse and honor killings are usually not reported. Sometimes it’s not even illegal.

At that time, the influence of religion and social control was much greater and hence there were at least a couple of honor killings a day, if not more. Partition years were the starting of the Tradition of honor killing and this tradition is even in many other countries like North and South America, Turkey, Africa and even other countries. But the thing in these countries is that the crime rate is less for these incidents and these countries also have a rule of punishing a person for these kinds of