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What is "Honor Killing"?
From Wikipedia:
Honor killing is the killing of a
female, and sometimes her family members, love-interests or other
associates, for supposed sexual or marital offenses, typically by her
own relatives or relatives of a purported romantic interest, with the
justification being that the "offense" has brought "dishonor" to the
family. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the annual
worldwide total of honor killing victims may be as high as 5,000 women.
In societies and
cultures where it occurs, honor killing is often regarded as a private
matter for the affected family alone; rarely do non-family members or
the courts become involved or prosecute the perpetrators. The practice
is condemned by human rights supporters for being a double standard and
sexist, since males will not be killed for such an "offense"; i.e. if a
man rapes a woman, it is the woman who "brings dishonor" to her family
and not the rapist. [1]
From Human Rights Watch:
Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male
family members against female family members, who are perceived to have
brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by
(individuals within) 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
(allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has
behaved in a specific way to "dishonor" her family, is sufficient to
trigger an attack. [2]
For example, honor killings can
sometimes target those who choose boyfriends, lovers or spouses outside
of their family's ethnic and/or religious community. Some women who
adopt the customs (or religion) of an outside group, may also be more
likely to be victims. Furthermore, in certain cultures a raped single
woman will garner no bride price if she marries, and thus be considered
"worthless" to the family. There is some evidence that homosexuality
can also be grounds for honor killing by relatives. Several cases have
been suspected but not confirmed. There is also a documented case of a
gay Jordanian man who was shot (but not fatally) by his brother.
Many hold the practice to
be self-contradictory, since an honor killing is sometimes justified by
its participants or supporters, as an attempt to uphold the morals of a
religion or a code, which at the same time generally forbids killing as
morally wrong. However, advocates argue that this is no more
contradictory than the state who imprisons someone for wrongful
kidnapping and imprsionment, because in both cases it could be said
that the code is being violated by the person(s) who attempt to uphold
it.
Honor Suicides
Honor Suicides occur when,
in an effort to avoid legal penalties for killing, a woman is ordered
or pressured into killing herself. This phenomenon appears to be a
relatively recent development. A special envoy for the United Nations
named Yakin Erturk, who was sent to Turkey to investigate suspicious
suicides, was quoted by the New York Times as saying that some suicides
appeared to be "honor killings disguised as a suicide or an accident."
History:
Based on suspicion
The killing of people for
sexual crimes has been known since the times of Ancient Babylon (1700
BCE). The Codes of Hammurabi and Assyria (some of the earliest sets of
laws discovered), focus on the perception that a woman’s virginity
belongs to her family. In Peru from 1200 BCE - 1532 CE, alleged
adulterers were punished by having their hands and feet tied to a wall
and being left to starve to death. A man was allowed to kill his wife
if he caught or suspected her of having an extra-marital affair, while
if a woman caught or suspected her husband of doing the same thing and
killed him, she was given the death penalty.
Individuals within
certain Chinese, Japanese and other (South) East Asian cultures,
legally sanctioned the killing of unfaithful wives by their husbands to
protect family honor. In some (past and present) South Asian and/or
Hindu cultures, new wives are at times murdered by their husbands
because of failed dowry demands. The killings are sometimes carried out
by burning the victims to death through "accidental" kitchen fires. The
prior practice i.e. the honor motivated killing of adulterous wives,
occurred within (certain) Germanic tribes of Western Europe as well.
In Ancient Roman times,
the pater familias, or senior male within a household, retained the
right to kill an unmarried but sexually active daughter or an
adulterous wife. Even in the United States, until recent times,
wife-killings by husbands (especially against adulterous wives -
whether or not they were premeditated) were not considered a crime in
some jurisdictions. Such practices, to a large extent, have ceased to
be endemic in North America, although some immigrants from North Africa
and the Near East (for example) have brought the practice with them in
recent decades.
Based on proof
In the Valley of Mexico
from 150 BCE - 1521 CE, the punishment for female adultery was death by
stoning or strangulation, but only after the husband could prove the
offence. According to interpretations of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the
Halakha (Jewish law) punishes certain sexual misconduct for both men
and women, with capital punishment (also through stoning) as approved
by a court (or Sanhedrin). It should be noted such practices do not
currently take place within Judaism worldwide.
Honor killings, generally
considered premeditated, are typically held to be distinct from Crimes
of passion, which occur throughout the world. Crimes of passion often
have special status under the law. For instance, until 1975, the French
Penal Code commuted the sentence of a husband who killed his wife after
finding her in the act of committing adultery; this law passed into the
legal frameworks of the many nations who based their modern legal codes
on the Napoleonic Code. Thus, Crimes of passion are different from
honor killings, in the sense that they are spontaneous acts that aren't
planned. Furthermore, many honor killings (along with some Crimes of
passion) are based on sheer suspiscion as opposed to (what appears to
be) factual proof, in relation to the idea that an individual has
committed or been involved in an "undesirable act", in the mind of the
perpetrator(s).
Locations
As of 2004, honor killings
have occurred at the hands of individuals within parts of various
countries, such as Albania, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,
Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan,
Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, the United
Kingdom and the United States. Honor killings are more common among
poor rural communities. In Europe, honor killings have mostly been
reported within some Muslim and Sikh communities. Individual Arab
Christians living within parts of the Near East, such as sections of
Egypt, Jordan and Palestine, are said to sometimes carry out the act as
well. Many cases of honor killings have been reported in Pakistan. In
December 2005, Nazir Afzal, director of Britain's Crown Prosecution
Service, stated that the United Kingdom has seen "at least a dozen
honor killings" between 2004 and 2005. Critics argue that the practice
is over-whelmingly associated with certain Muslim cultures and the
peoples influenced by those cultures.
[1] Honor Killing
[2] Violence Against Women and "Honor" Crimes
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