Honor killing
Examples are having premarital, extramarital or postmarital sex (in case of divorce or widowship), refusing to enter into an arranged or forced marriage, seeking a divorce or marital separation, engaging in interfaith, interracial relations or even friendships, having relations with someone from a different caste, disability, being the victim of a sexual crime, dressing in clothing, jewelry, and accessories that are associated with sexual deviance, engaging in a relationship in spite of moral marriage impediments or bans, and homosexuality.
Honor killings are performed in communities with the intent to punish violations of social, sexual, religious or family norms or hierarchies.
A woman can be targeted by her family for a variety of reasons including, 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.
[33] Honor killings occur in many parts of the world, but are most widely reported in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.
The short story The Point of Honour by English writer W. Somerset Maugham makes reference to El médico de su honra and discusses the role of honor in Spanish society at the end of the 19th century.
[41] Methods of murdering include stoning, stabbing, beating, burning, beheading, hanging, throat slashing, lethal acid attacks, shooting, and strangulation.
Honor killings are argued to have their origins among nomadic peoples and herdsmen: such populations carry all their valuables with them and risk having them stolen, and they do not have proper recourse to law.
Sharif Kanaana, professor of anthropology at Birzeit University, says that honor killing is: A complicated issue that cuts deep into the history of Islamic society.
Some researchers argue that the shift towards greater responsibility for women and less for their fathers may cause their male family members to act in oppressive and sometimes violent manners to regain authority.
[53] Fareena Alam, former editor of the British Muslim magazine Q-News, writes that honor killings which arise in Western cultures such as Britain are a tactic for immigrant families to cope with the alienating consequences of urbanization.
In cultures where marriages are arranged and goods are often exchanged between families, a woman's desire to seek a divorce is often viewed as an insult to the men who negotiated the deal.
[71][72] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees states that "claims made by LGBT persons often reveal exposure to physical and sexual violence, extended periods of detention, medical abuse, the threat of execution and honor killing.
Muslims and Hindus were substantially more likely to approve of "honor" abuse than Christians or Buddhists, who scored lowest of the examined religious groups.
In one case, a 16-year-old British Bangladeshi schoolboy from Blackburn, Lancashire was abducted and attacked by his Pakistani girlfriend's uncle, father, cousin and brother for dating her in an 'Honour Beating'.
When these rules are violated, including by dressing in a way deemed inappropriate or displaying behavior seen as disobedient, the family may respond with violence up to honor killings.
[100][98] Research in Jordan found that teenagers who strongly endorsed honor killings in fact did not come from more religious households than teens who rejected it.
[101] In the US, a rural trend known as the "small-town effect" exhibits elevated incidents of argument-related homicides among white males, particularly in honor-oriented states in the South and the West, where everyone "knows your name and knows your shame."
However, Pakistani judges still sometimes hand down lenient sentences for honor killings, justified by still citing the IPC's mention of a "grave and sudden provocation.
[117] In the case of an unmarried woman or girl associating herself with a man, losing virginity, or being raped, the family may attempt to restore its honor with a "shotgun wedding".
No Muslim scholar of any note, either medieval or modern, has sanctioned a man killing his wife or sister for tarnishing her or the family's honor.
If a woman or man found together were to deserve the death penalty for fornication, this would have to be established by the evidence required by the Qur'an: either a confession or the testimony of four male witnesses, all upstanding in the eyes of the court, who actually saw penetration occur.
He wrote, "There is no doubt that laxity on this matter is one of the greatest means leading to women's lives being destroyed, especially in the Bedouin regions, which are characterized by harsh-hardheartedness and a strong sense of honor and shame stemming from Pre-Islamic times".
[133] According to the UN in 2002: The report of the Special Rapporteur... concerning cultural practices in the family that are violent towards women (E/CN.4/2002/83), indicated that honor killings had been reported in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon (the Lebanese Parliament abolished the Honor killing in August 2011), Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean and Persian Gulf countries, and that they had also taken place in western countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, within migrant communities.
[134][135]In addition, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights gathered reports from several countries and considering only the countries that submitted reports it was shown that honor killings have occurred in Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.
However, in many places, adultery and other "immoral" sexual behaviors by female family members can be considered mitigating circumstances in the case when they are murdered, leading to significantly shorter sentences.
[180] Often, a suspected honor killing never even reaches court, but in cases where they do, the alleged killer is often not charged or is given a reduced sentence of three to four years in jail.
[182] The general indifference to the issue of honor killing within Pakistan is due to a deep-rooted gender bias in law, the police force, and the judiciary.
In its report, "Pakistan: Honor Killings of Girls and Women",[183] published in September 1999, Amnesty International criticized governmental indifference and called for state responsibility in protecting human rights of female victims.
Finally, protective measures include ensuring a safe environment for activists, lawyers, and women's groups to facilitate the eradication of honor killings.
[42][139] Human rights advocates have compared "honor killings" to "crimes of passion" in Latin America (which are sometimes treated extremely leniently) and the murdering of women for lack of dowry in India.
