Why honor killings are honorable

There are a few ways in which the root causes of honor killings and violence are fundamentally misunderstood. So here is the truth:. International coverage of honor killings and violence tends to focus on incidents in countries like Pakistan, India, and Muslim communities, so it is easy to misattribute this kind of violence to religious beliefs.

And in this view, girls and women are expendable when that honor is tarnished and the symbol is tainted. Most of the figures on honor-based violence and killings are gross underestimations. Since not all countries and justice systems distinguish between honor-motivated crimes and domestic violence or homicides committed for other reasons, it is difficult to obtain an accurate count of honor based violence and honor killings.

Additionally, there are not always reporting mechanisms in place and even countries that have laws criminalizing honor-based violence and killings have loopholes that allow these crimes to go unreported and unpunished.

Though honor killings are illegal in Pakistan, the law is poorly enforced and it still has one of the highest incidences of these murders. Because honor killings are often carried out by family members, there may not be outside witnesses to the crime, meaning that it is up to the perpetrators to turn themselves in. They are then more likely to pass the murder off as suicide or death by natural causes. A lack of accurate data on how many incidents have occurred and where they have occurred poses a challenge to addressing the problem.

While creating new laws to address honor-based violence is crucial, the ideology of this honor is deeply entrenched in culture. Pakistani policemen and investigative authorities from the same culture may not necessarily motivated to enforce the law because they accept these social norms. In countries where honor culture is not prevalent, law enforcement authorities may not understand the nature of the problem and incorrectly handle cases.

In many instances, if a girl or woman seeks help because she fears for her life, she may find safety with her family; this is particularly true for children. But the perpetrators of honor-based violence are generally family members, so sending a girl or a woman back to her family might essentially be issuing a death sentence.

In order to stop this practice there need to be strict laws prohibiting honor based violence, but there also needs to be a change in the social norms that support the violence and an awareness of how to appropriately deal with victims.

No act of violence can or will restore honor to a human being — so we need to stop validating these actions by inserting honor into the terminology. To use the word honor in reference to these murders is to adopt the perspective of the attackers rather than the attacked. If a woman discovered in flagrante cannot be even publicly accused unless there are four witnesses to her act, then mere suspicion can never justify slaying a woman.

This does not mean, of course, that human honor is unimportant. Though there is a double standard in that men are, under certain circumstances, permitted to have several lawful sexual partners while women must always remain monogamous, when it comes to punishment for illicit intercourse men and women are treated exactly alike. In this sense, the traditional framework for dealing with illicit sexual behavior is balanced—unlike in the case of honor killings for actual or suspected sexual misconduct, in which only women are targets.

Yet it is a long stretch from these commands, which have the declared intention of protecting women from harassment Q. Honor killings, or crimes committed against women who are " seen as having transgressed social codes of honor ," are still a major problem in countries like Jordan and Syria.

While many of these crimes go unreported because they're often committed by a close relative of the victim, some of them get widespread media attention. Recent cases of honor killings that shook the Arab world include one of a man who murdered his sister in Abu Dhabi because he had "suspicions" over her behavior. In another horrendous "honor killing" reported last year, an Iraqi newlywed was killed because her husband suspected she was not a virgin.

She just had an elastic hymen, but he thought it was "loose" and thus killed her. The victim died because she had no control - and was probably not even aware - over how she was born. While several Arab countries have taken legislative action in a bid to end the barbaric practice, there's much more to be done in societies where many continue to justify violence against women. Women's rights activists in the region have also recently noted that there are several legal loopholes still available to those who commit honor crimes.

Activists state that one of the main reasons behind this is the lack of implementation of laws that criminalize such crimes. Toggle navigation. Download activity - last month. Download activity - last 12 months.

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