coe report

Honor KillingsCAN MURDERS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS BE STOPPED?

Each week brings horrific new headlines stating that, somewhere around the world, a woman or girl has been

killed by a male relative for allegedly bringing dishonor upon her family. According to the U.N. High

Commissioner for Human Rights, “In the name of preserving family ‘honor,’ women and girls are shot,

stoned, burned, buried alive, strangled, smothered and knifed to death with horrifying regularity.” Be-

tween 5,000 and 20,000 so-called honor killings are committed each year, based on long-held beliefs that any female

who commits — or is suspected of committing — an “immoral” act should be killed to “restore honor” to her fami-

ly. Honor killings are deeply rooted in ancient patriarchal and fundamentalist traditions, which some judicial systems

legitimize by pardoning offenders or handing out light sentences. Human-rights organizations are demanding that gov-

ernments and the international community

act more forcefully to stop honor killings,

but officials in some countries are doing

little to protect women and girls within

their borders.

With posters of murdered women as a backdrop,elderly Kurdish women par ticipate in a rally in Istanbul,

Turkey, to protest so-called honor killings of youngwomen and girls. Although condemned by the

government, honor killings mostly occur in Turkey’s Kurdish region, where they are

par t of traditional culture.

APRIL 19, 2011 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 8 PAGES 183-208 WWW.GLOBALRESEARCHER.COM

PUBLISHED BY CQ PRESS, A DIVISION OF SAGE WWW.CQPRESS.COM

E

184 CQ Global Researcher

HONOR KILLINGS

THE ISSUES

185 • Are honor killings aform of domestic violence?• Are governments doingenough to deter honorkillings?• Is the international com-munity doing enough tocombat honor killings?

BACKGROUND

194 Early OriginsHonor killings occurredin pre-Christian and pre-Islamic times.

196 Medieval PrejudicesWomen continued to besubjugated during theDark Ages.

199 Killings SpreadHonor murders now occurwithin immigrant commu-nities in the West.

CURRENT SITUATION

199 Providing Shelter?Setting up women’s shelterscan be controversial.

200 Legal EffortsSome courts are beginningto get tough on honorkillers.

OUTLOOK

202 Needed: Three ‘Ps’Experts say prevention,protection and prosecutioncan help stop honorkillings.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

186 Honor Killings Reportedin 26 CountriesUp to 20,000 women and girlsare killed each year to restorefamily honor.

187 Female Murders Skyrocketin TurkeyMurders of Turkish womenjumped 1,400 percent inseven years.

188 Loss of Family Honor CanHave Dire ConsequencesIntense societal pressure driveshonor killers.

190 What Does Islam SayAbout Honor Killings?Islamic scholars say theQuran does not condonesuch murders.

195 ChronologyKey events since 1946.

196 Honor Crime Survivor Be-comes Women’s ChampionAfter gang-rape, she refusedto commit suicide.

201 At IssueAre Muslims being unfairlystigmatized in honor crimecoverage?

208 Voices from AbroadHeadlines and editorials fromaround the world.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

205 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

206 BibliographySelected sources used.

207 The Next StepAdditional articles.

207 Citing CQ Global ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

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April 19, 2011Volume 5, Number 8

April 19, 2011 185www.globalresearcher.com

Honor Killings

THE ISSUESI n the remote Pakistani

province of Baluchistan,three teenage girls —

Hameeda, Raheema and Fauzia— fell in love with the wrongpeople. They apparently want-ed to marry husbands of theirown choosing rather than themen selected by their localUmrani tribal leaders. Marry-ing without permission is con-sidered an affront to the honorof the tribe.

Enraged, tribesmen kid-napped the girls, along withtwo older female relatives ofthe girls, and drove them allinto the desert. The menthen dragged the teenagersout of the car, beat them andshot them. But the girls didnot die instantly, so their at-tackers allegedly threw theminto a ditch and buried themalive, covering them with sandand rocks. When the olderwomen, aged 45 and 38, ob-jected, they too were shotand buried alive. 1

Two months later, after ahuman-rights organizationrevealed the murders, police openedan investigation. Several men were ar-rested, including the father, brothersand a cousin of the slain girls. But alocal politician defended the murdersas “honor killings,” justified by tradi-tion — even though such murders havebeen illegal in Pakistan since 2004.Nevertheless, Israrullah Zehr, a mem-ber of parliament from Baluchistan,claimed the killings were part of a“centuries-old tradition” and vowed hewould “continue to defend them.” 2

The five victims were just some ofthe thousands of women and girls aroundthe world who are murdered each yearin so-called honor killings: socially sanc-

tioned, premeditated murders — usuallyby male relatives — due to real or ru-mored premarital sex or infidelity or forhaving been raped or sexually abused.Women and girls are also killed for be-having in “immoral” ways — such astalking to boys, refusing to accept anarranged marriage or marrying outsideof their ethnic group. The killer be-lieves that his action cleanses the honorof his family and community.

“Such killings occur when the ‘honor’of male members of a household isperceived to have been injured,” saidI. A. Rehman, secretary general of theLahore-based Human Rights Commis-sion of Pakistan. 3

Every week brings newreports of unbelievably cruelhonor killings:• Hena Begum, a 14-year-oldBangladeshi girl, died in Feb-ruary after being publiclyflogged. Her crime? She hadreportedly been raped by a40-year-old married cousin. 4

After the rape, family mem-bers reportedly beat her andaccused her of having an af-fair with the cousin. The vil-lage council then sentencedher to 100 lashes. 5

• Karima Metawe, 20, was ru-mored to have left her homein Alexandria, Egypt, withoutpermission last September. Hertwo brothers and an unclestrangled her to death in frontof her baby “to ‘restore’ theirfamily’s honor.” 6

• As a punishment for “talk-ing to boys,” 16-year-old Me-dine Memi was secretly mur-dered by her relatives last yearin southeastern Turkey. Herbody was found in a 6-foot-deep hole under a chickenpen; her hands were tied andher lungs and stomach werefilled with soil, indicating shehad been buried alive. 7

Because so many honor killings arenever reported — and because inter-national organizations are discouragedfrom keeping statistics on such polit-ically sensitive practices — no oneknows how many honor killings occureach year. The United Nations Popu-lation Fund’s commonly quoted esti-mate — up to 5,000 women per year— is thought to be a gross under-count. 8 The figure is closer to 20,000a year worldwide, according to DianaNammi, director of the London-basedIranian and Kurdish Women’s RightsOrganization (IKWRO). Robert Fisk, aBeirut-based journalist, agrees. He wrotea multipart series on honor killings

BY ROBERT KIENER

AP Ph

oto/Sh

akil Adil

Fourteen-year-old Noor Jehan lies in a Karachi hospital after beingshot five times and left in a ditch to die — allegedly by two malecousins. Jehan told reporters that when one of her cousins askedher to marry him and her father refused to consent, the spurnedcousin claimed she had had sex with another man and tried tokill her to reclaim his “honor.” Jehan died a month later from anabdominal infection, becoming one of the 5,000-20,000 victims

murdered each year in so-called honor killings.


after traveling throughout South Asiaand the Middle East studying the prac-tice, which he calls “one of the lastgreat taboos.” 9

During 2010 there were reportedly960 honor killings in Pakistan alone,according to the U.N. High Commis-sioner for Refugees. 10 In Syria activistsclaim up to 200 women die in honorkillings annually. 11 In Iraq, more than12,000 women died in honor killingsbetween 1991 and 2007, according toAso Kamal, a human-rights activistwith the Doaa Network Against Vio-lence. 12

And honor killings apparently areon the rise, according to many ob-servers. In February Turkey’s justice min-ister shocked the country when he an-nounced that murders of Turkish womenhad jumped from 66 in 2002 to 953 injust the first seven months of 2009 —a 1,400 percent increase. Some ofTurkey’s media have labeled theslaughter “Turkey’s Shame.” 13 PrimeMinister Recep Tayipp Erdogan con-demned the killings and said there was“no such thing as committing violencein the name of honor.” But the killingsshow no signs of slowing down. 14

India has also seen a recent resur-gence in honor killing, often related tomen and women who violate Hindumarriage traditions, such as marrying apartner from a higher or lower caste. AsOxfam International has noted, “every sixhours, somewhere in India, a young mar-ried woman is burned alive, beaten todeath, or driven to commit suicide.” 15

Many experts object to calling themurders “honor” killings. “There is noth-ing honorable about these killings,” saysAisha Gill, a senior lecturer and experton honor killings at London’s Roe-hampton University. “They are murders,

HONOR KILLINGS

Honor Killings Reported in 26 CountriesExperts say between 5,000 and 20,000 women and girls are killed each year in the name of family honor. Many of the victims are tortured, burned, stoned or strangled. The murders, which often go unpunished, have occurred in at least 26 countries — nine of them Western countries with large immigrant communities, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Sources: United Nations; news reports

Countries Where Honor Killings Occur

Victim’s home country

Killings committed in:

Immigrant communities

UGANDAUGANDAUGANDA

EGYPT

YEMEN

JORDANKUWAITKUWAITKUWAIT

IRAQSYRIA

LEBANONLEBANONLEBANONIRAN

PAKISTANBANGLADESH

INDIA

TURKEY

RUSSIA

ISRAELISRAELISRAELMOROCCO

DENMARK

BELGIUM

SWEDENSWEDENSWEDEN

UNITED KINGDOM

ITALY

ECUADOR

CANADA

UNITED STATES

BRAZIL

NETHERLANDS

GERMANY


plain and simple. I see the term ‘honorkillings’ as an oxymoron.” Some preferto call the murders “so-called honorkillings,” “femicide” or “shame killings.”

According to Rana Husseini, a Jor-danian journalist and author of the riv-eting 2009 book Murder in the Nameof Honor, statistics are hard to pindown because “many honor killingsare passed off as suicides, accidentsand disappearances.” For instance, arecent study in Pakistan found that onein five homicides is an honor killing— a total of 1,957 honor killings overfour years. But author Muazzani Nas-rullah, from Pakistan’s highly regardedAga Khan University in Karachi, noted,“The problem is much more than whatis depicted in my paper.” 16

“Whatever the numbers,” says Hus-seini, “it is clear that honor killings areone of the most serious global prob-lems faced by women today.”

Besides murder, other honor-relatedcrimes are committed against womenin so-called honor-based traditionalsocieties, including stoning, whipping,acid throwing and forced suicides. Ac-cording to Navi Pillay, U.N. High Com-missioner for Human Rights, “In thename of preserving family ‘honor,’women and girls are shot, stoned,burned, buried alive, strangled, smoth-ered and knifed to death with horri-fying regularity.” 17

In cultures where honor killingsoccur, the killings are generally basedon the belief that women are objectswithout rights: Honor may be em-bodied in the society’s women buthonor is the property of men, whoare responsible for protecting it. AsAmnesty International noted, “Womenare considered the property of malerelatives and seen to embody the honorof the men to whom they ‘belong.’Women’s bodies are considered therepositories of family honor.” Awoman suspected of damaging thathonor may face punishment or death.

But their murderers often go scot-free. The laws in some countries le-

gitimize the murder of women bytheir husbands or relatives. In Syria,for example, the penal code grantsimmunity or a greatly reduced sen-tence to a man who kills a femalerelative. Jordan’s penal code states,“He who discovers his wife or oneof his female relatives committingadultery and kills, wounds or in-jures one of them, is exempted fromany penalty.”

Men are sometimes the victim ofhonor crimes, but such instances aremuch rarer than honor crimes com-mitted against women. After a Pakistanicollege student married a woman with-out the permission of her higher-castefamily, the bride’s relatives fractured hislegs with an ax and slashed his noseand ears. The victim, MohammedIqbal, said his attackers screamed, “Youhave mixed our honor with dirt” asthey assaulted him. Last August, theTaliban stoned an Afghan couple todeath for committing adultery. 18

When there is prosecution, the pun-ishments often are lax. A U.N. Com-mission on Human Rights report notedthat the “great majority” of the honorcrimes it examined in Pakistan went“unpunished either because no com-plaint was ever filed by relatives ofthe victims, or because the police re-fused to file a complaint.” Even incases where “murderers reportedlysurrendered themselves to police withthe murder weapon . . . no action wasever taken against them.” 19

Honor killing has been reported inmore than a two dozen nations, butprimarily occur in South Asia and theMiddle East. In recent years honorkillings have spread to immigrant com-munities in Western countries, includ-ing France, Germany, Sweden, theUnited States and the United Kingdom.(See map, p. 186.) In the U.K., for ex-ample, police investigate up to a dozenhonor killings of women each yearand estimate that at least 500 cases

Female Murders in Turkey, 2002 and 2009

Female Murders Skyrocket in TurkeyNearly 1,000 women were murdered in Turkey in 2009 — a 1,400 percent increase from 2002, when a religiously conservative Muslim government took power. Most of the murders were stabbings and shootings by family members. No one knows how many of the murders were so-called honor killings, which are illegal in Turkey, but women’s-rights advocates say they were probably a large proportion. The government says it has enacted far-reaching gender-equality reforms, but women’s groups point out that Turkey, with 74 million people, has only 54 shelters for women escaping violence at home, compared to Germany, which has 800 women’s shelters for a population of 82 million.

Source: Dorian Jones, “Turkey’s Murder Rate of Women Skyrockets,” Voice of America, February 2011, www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Turkeys-Murder-Rate-of-Women-Skyrockets-117093538.html

66

0 200 400 600 800 1,000

2009

2002

953


of other honor crimes, such as beatingsor sexual assaults, are committed againstwomen each year in Britain. 20

Although honor killings are most com-mon in Muslim countries, they also arewidespread in non-Muslim cultures. “It isa mistake to see this as a Muslim-onlycrime,” says Husseini. “There are alsoChristians, Hindus and Sikhs that carryout and condone honor crimes againstwomen.” In Turkey’s Assyrian Christiancommunity, a newlywed couple was killedby the bride’s Christian brother, report-edly “to restore the family honor.” Thegroom was Muslim. 21

“Violence in the name of honortranscends communities and religions,”says Gill.

None of the world’s major religionscondones honor-related crimes. Thepractice has traditional and cultural

origins, according to experts. AlthoughMuslim scholars say there is no basisin the Quran for honor killing, thatdoesn’t stop some Muslim killers fromtrying to justify their actions on reli-gious grounds. (See sidebar, p. 190.)

“These murders are called ‘honorkillings’ because they are seen by theirperpetrators as ways of re-establishingthe family’s honor, which has beenlost by extramarital activity, willing orunwilling, on the part of one of itsfemale members,” wrote Kwame An-thony Appiah, a philosophy professorat Princeton University. 22

In one especially ghastly example, afather in Egypt paraded his daughter’sdecapitated head through the streetsshouting, “I avenged my honor.” 23 APalestinian merchant explained to a re-porter, “A woman shamed is like rotting

flesh. If it is not cut away, it will con-sume the body. . . . The whole familywill be tainted if she is not killed.” 24

As the numbers of honor killingsdemonstrate, the pressure on familymembers to carry out these heinouscrimes is immense. “Tradition is apowerful impetus for these perpetra-tors,” explains Husseini. “It supersedesfamilial love and makes many of thesekillers feel they have no choice but toattempt to restore their fallen honor.”

A few victims are beginning to fightback. Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman,was gang-raped on orders of a villagecouncil to restore the honor of a localclan that said Mai’s family had violatedthe clan’s honor. But she refused to com-mit suicide, which was expected of her.Instead, she helped to prosecute her at-tackers and has become a spokeswoman

HONOR KILLINGS

What would lead a father or brother to murder abeloved daughter or sister, in the name of honor?The loss of honor in some traditional societies can

have a devastating impact on a family, and perpetrators ofhonor crimes often say intense community pressure drove themto murder a loved one:

• “I had to protect my children,” said an anguished Pales-tinian mother of nine after putting a plastic bag over herdaughter’s head and slitting her wrists because the teenhad brought shame on the family by being raped andimpregnated by a brother. “This is the only way I couldprotect my family’s honor.” 1

• “Honour is the only thing a man has,” said a sorrowfulPakistani man, who had strangled his 23-year-old daugh-ter after she ran off with a man from a rival tribe. “I canstill hear her screams; she was my favorite daughter. Iwant to destroy my hands and end my life.” 2

• “I did it to wash with her blood the family honor . . .and in response to the will of society that would not havehad any mercy on me if I didn’t,” said a 25-year-old Pales-tinian, explaining why he had hanged his sister. “Societytaught us from childhood that blood is the only solutionto wash the honor.” 3

According to the London-based Centre for Social Cohesion —a nonpartisan organization that studies radicalization and ex-tremism in Britain and studied honor killings in immigrant com-

munities in the U.K. — families with damaged honor can ex-perience a variety of consequences, including: 4

• Ostracism — The family can be ignored or ostracized bythe rest of the community. Their children may be reject-ed at school by fellow members of their cultural, ethnicor religious group.

• Economic damage — The family may receive smallerdowries for their children. In some cases, shops and busi-nesses can be boycotted or even physically attacked bycommunity members who believe their collective honorhas also been tarnished.

• Political consequences — Community leaders and politi-cians can lose votes, prestige and influence.

• Loss of self-esteem — Family members can become de-pressed or suicidal. Feelings of shame can hamper theirinteractions with neighbors and friends and negatively af-fect their work, possibly causing further damage to theirsocial standing.

1 Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, “Palestinian girl’s murder highlights growing numberof ‘honor killings,’ ” Knight Ridder, Nov. 16, 2003.2 Robert Fisk, “Invisible Massacre: The Crimewave that Shames the World,” TheIndependent, Sept. 7, 2010, www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/invisible-massacre-the-crimewave-that-shames-the-world-2072201.html.3 Yotam Feldner, “ ‘Honor’ Murders — Why the Perps Get off Easy,” MiddleEast Quarterly, December 2000, pp. 41-50.4 “Crimes of the Community: Honour-Based Violence in the UK,” Centre for So-cial Cohesion, 2010, www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1229624550_1.pdf.

Loss of Family Honor Can Have Dire ConsequencesIntense societal pressure drives many honor killers.


for the thousands of women who havesilently suffered at the hands of so-calledhonor killers. (See sidebar, p. 196.)

“More and more girls and womenare being killed every day, and thereis so little awareness, punishment orjustice,” she explains to a visitor in thewomen’s shelter and girls’ school shehas built in rural Punjab. “The worldhas to hear their cries. We owe themthat much at the very least.”

As women around the world contin-ue to suffer at the hands of attackersbent on restoring family “honor,” hereare some of the questions being asked:

Are honor killings a form of do-mestic violence?

The chilling murder of 16-year-oldCanadian Muslim schoolgirl Aqsa Parvezmade headlines around the world in 2007.For many it had all the hallmarks of anhonor killing: She allegedly was stran-gled by her father for refusing to weara hijab, a traditional Muslim headscarf.Earlier, she had left home and soughtrefuge in a shelter after telling her friendsher father was going to kill her. 25

Many, however, viewed Aqsa’s mur-der as nothing more than an act ofdomestic violence. Women are killedin many societies, but the media aretoo quick to label every Muslim-on-Muslim murder an honor crime, saysMohamed Elmasary, president of theCanadian Islamic Congress. “I don’t wantthe public to think this is really an Is-lamic issue or an immigrant issue,” hesaid. “It is a teenager issue.” 26

Sheik Alaa El-Sayyed, imam at theIslamic Society of North America inMississauga, Ontario, agreed. “The bot-tom line is, it’s a domestic violenceissue,” he said. 27

Both men claimed that instantly la-beling the killing an honor crime un-fairly stigmatizes Muslims. “We, asMuslims, are Canadians, and weshould be dealt with just like every-one else,” El-Sayyed said. “We haverights, duties . . . pros and cons . . .just like all other human beings.” 28

Others disagree. “Like many other Mus-lims, they are in denial,” explains Phyl-lis Chesler, a professor emerita of psy-chology and women’s studies at theRichmond College of City University ofNew York who conducted two studieson honor killings for the Middle EastQuarterly. “Too many Muslims are claim-ing that honor killings are simply do-mestic violence. My investigations showthat in case after case honor killings arequite distinct from domestic violence.” 29

Chesler insists: “Western domesticviolence and honor killings are not thesame. An honor killing is a conspira-cy planned and carried out by the vic-tim’s family of origin who view thekilling as heroic. Daughter-stalking,daughter-beating and daughter-killingis not a Western cultural pattern, noris it valorized. In the West, wife- anddaughter-killers are considered criminals,not heroes; wife-killers are not assistedby their parents or in-laws.”

She and others list several charac-teristics of honor killings that distin-guish them from domestic abuse:

Planning: Honor killings often fol-low death threats and may be care-fully planned and premeditated. Do-mestic violence murders usually arespontaneous “crimes of passion.”

Reason: The motive given for honorkillings is usually that the victim has“dishonored” the spouse or family.Honor is rarely, if ever, a reason givenfor domestic killings.

Perpetrator: The perpetrator of anhonor killing usually does not act alone,as in domestic violence. “There is ei-ther an explicit or implicit approval oreven encouragement by other mem-bers of the family to commit the mur-der,” noted University of California,Berkeley, researcher Rochelle L. Ter-man. “This is because honor must berestored for the collective, not just theindividual.” 30

Perception: While domestic vio-lence is rarely celebrated, many of thosewho commit or assist in honor killingsshow little or no remorse. Indeed, aTurkish study of 180 prisoners convict-ed of honor killings revealed that none

Police present four male relatives of Saima Bibi, 17, who died Jan. 21 in the Punjab city ofBahawalpur, Pakistan. The men are charged with torturing and electrocuting Bibi to death inthe name of family honor. She had eloped with a lower-caste neighbor, and a village councilruled that death was the appropriate punishment. Although honor killings are illegal inPakistan, the U.N. says nearly 1,000 Pakistani women and girls were victims in 2010.

Reu

ters


regretted their actions. “In some cases,the victim’s relatives even praised theperpetrator,” said Mazhar Bagli, an as-sociate professor of sociology atTurkey’s Dicle University, who super-vised the study. 31

While some experts, such as Chesler,note that honor killings are “commit-ted mainly by Muslims against Mus-lims,” it is important to note that they

can occur across many religions andraces. Terman has identified honorkillings among Muslims, Christians,Jews, Yazidis, Druze, Sikhs, Hindusand nonbelievers. 32

“Because so-called honor killingsare prevalent among Muslim societies,there is the misconception that theyare condoned by Islam,” says Hus-seini, the Jordanian journalist and au-

thor of Murder in the Name of Honor.Nowhere in the Quran or in anymajor interpretation of Sharia laws arehonor killings prescribed, she says.“Furthermore, many reputable Islam-ic scholars and clerics have spokenout against the practice of honorkillings,” noted Terman. 33

However, some Muslim governmentsdiscourage discussion of the topic. The

HONOR KILLINGS

Because so many honor killings occur in predominantly Mus-lim countries, many people assume Islam sanctions mur-ders in the name of family or tribal honor. But, according

to Islamic experts, the Quran does not support those claims.“Nothing in the Quran allows honor killings,” says Muzammil

Siddiqi, chairman of the Islamic Law Council of North America. “Theyare totally un-Islamic and have nothing to do with the religion.”

In fact, he says, the Quran states: “Never should a believerkill a believer. Take not life, which Allah hath made sacred,except by way of justice and law.” And while the Quran doesteach that a couple who commit adultery should both be flogged“with a hundred stripes,” it does not demand death.

Furthermore, says Siddiqi, “Nowhere in the Quran is a familymember or anyone but a government authority authorized to carryout any kind of punishment.”

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti — a Muslim scholar andmember of the Islamic judicial body, the North American FiqhCouncil — explained that in Islam “even in the case of capi-tal punishment, only the government can apply the law throughthe judicial procedures. No one has the authority to executethe law other than the officers who are in charge.” 1

Such principles contradict what many Muslim honor killersclaim: That a man whose family honor has been sullied by awoman must kill her in order to restore honor.

Max Gross, adjunct professor at Georgetown University’sPrince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Studies,says, “Many critics of Islam point to the Quran or spurious ver-sions of the hadith, the so-called teachings of Muhammad,claiming that Islam justifies honor killings. But scholars agreethere is no justification in the Quran for these killings. On thecontrary, Muhammad emphasized forgiveness over revenge.”

In addition, honor crimes often are carried out based onrumors or suspicions that a female has behaved in an immoralway. However, the Quran forbids anyone from being punishedfor wrongdoing without conclusive proof: “And those who launcha charge against chaste women, and produce not four wit-nesses, . . . flog them with eighty stripes and reject their evi-dence ever after . . . for such men are wicked transgressors.”

Nilofar Bakhtiar, a former adviser to Pakistan’s prime minis-ter, has said that using Islam to justify honor killings is “rubbish”and blamed such crimes in Pakistan on “the feudal tradition, theculture and the tribal system.” She claimed that men “found itvery convenient to say that what they don’t want to do is ‘againstIslam’ and what they want to do is ‘in the name of Islam.’ ” 2

Sayyid Syeed, National Director for the Office for Interfaithand Community Alliances for the Islamic Society of North Amer-ica, says, “Historically, tribal practices such as honor killingswere carried out by practitioners who mistakenly believed themto be inspired by Islam.”

While the view that women are the property of men, withno rights of their own, does not appear in the Quran, it isdeeply rooted in Arab tradition, experts say. Such attitudes fa-cilitate honor crimes, as has Shariah law, which treats womenas less than the equals of men.

But as Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Princeton philosophy pro-fessor, has noted: “There is almost universal agreement amongqualified interpreters of Islam that honor killing is un-Islamic.” 3

Other high-profile Muslims, including Syria’s Grand Mufticleric Ahmad Hassoun, have condemned honor killings. 4 AndLebanon’s senior Shiite cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Mo-hammed Hussein Fadlallah, last year called the practice of mur-dering a female relative for alleged sexual misconduct a “vi-cious phenomenon.” He issued a fatwa, or a religious ruling,forbidding honor killings. Such crimes, he said, are consideredin Islam as “one of the Kabair [severe sins] whose perpetratordeserves to enter Hellfire in the afterlife.” 5

— Robert Kiener

1 “Honor killing from an Islamic perspective,” OnIslam, Feb. 22, 2011, www.onislam.net/english/ask-the-scholar/crimes-and-penalties/retaliation-qisas/174426-honor-killing-from-an-islamic-perspective.html.2 Jan Strupczewski, “Men distort religion to justify ‘honour’ killings,” Reuters,Dec. 8, 2004, www.ncdsv.org/images/ExpertsMenDistoryReligion.pdf.3 Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Honor Code (2010), p. 153.4 Rasha Elass, “ ‘Honor’ killing spurs outcry in Syria,” The Christian ScienceMonitor, Feb. 14, 2007, www.csmonitor.com/2007/0214/p07s02-wome.html.5 “Fatwa against honor killings,” VOA News, Feb. 18, 2010, www.voanews.com/a-41-2007-08-13-voa3-84654512.html.

What Does Islam Say About Honor Killings?Most scholars say Quran does not condone honor crimes.

˘


IKWRO’s Nammi explains, “Discussionsabout honor killings in Muslim com-munities have been taboo for a verylong time.” Indeed, some activists whoare identifying honor killings are ac-cused of stigmatizing Arab communi-ties. They are also accused of perpet-uating a Western view of their societiesas “primitive” or “backward.”

And Islamists who seek “to cover upthis sin against Muslim girls and womenattack those who would dare expose itas ‘Islamophobes,’ ” says Chesler.

On the other hand, some women’s-rights advocates argue that honor killingsmust be seen in historical perspective.“Until thirty years ago, it was commonto hear about honor killings amongItalians. But now when a man kills hiswife, they call it a crime of passion,”said Italian journalist Cinzia Tani. “It’sthe same concept taking different names:A man kills a woman of his family inorder to assert his control over herbody. The only difference is that backthen the homicide of a woman was100 percent acceptable.” 34

Canadian journalist Chris Selley saidthe world should abandon “this ridicu-lous, self-indulgent debate over the tax-onomy of honour killings. Those onthe left who abhor the term are rightabout one thing: A good few of thepeople who constantly shout it fromthe rooftops are mostly interested indemonizing Islam. But that doesn’tchange the fact that honour killingscan — over shrieking objections fromfeminists — rather easily be distin-guished from other cases of domesticviolence. . . . Ultimately who careswhat we call it?” 35

John Esposito, an authority on Islamat Georgetown University and the au-thor of the 2010 book The Future ofIslam, and Sheila B. Lalwani, a researchfellow at Georgetown University, noted,“Violence against women is a globalphenomenon, not a religious one. Nev-ertheless it deserves the attention ofevery religious leader and responsiblevoter; anything less contributes to the

denial and complacency that permits itto persist.” 36

Are governments doing enoughto deter honor killings?

Many women’s advocates say gov-ernments are not doing enough to stopthe slaughter of between 5,000 and20,000 women a year in honor killings.“For example,” says Nammi, the Iran-ian and Kurdish women’s advocate“many states condone honor killing. It’sa disgrace that these laws still exist.”

Indeed, many countries have lawslegalizing the murder of women bytheir relatives. For example, Article 220of the Iranian Criminal Code states: “Ifa father — or his male ancestors —kill their children, they will not beprosecuted for murder.” Last year onInternational Women’s Day, U.N. HighCommissioner for Human Rights’ Pil-lay said, “The problem [of honor killings]is exacerbated by the fact that in anumber of countries, domestic legalsystems . . . still fully or partially ex-empt individuals guilty of honor killingsfrom punishment. 37

For example, in Kuwait, “He whosurprises his wife in the act of adul-tery . . . or surprises his daughter,mother or sister in the act of sexualintercourse with a man and immedi-ately kills her . . . shall be punishedby prison for a period not more thanthree years,” according to Article 153of the Penal Code.” 38

The penal code in Jordan says, “[H]ewho discovers his wife or one of hisfemale relatives committing adulteryand kills, wounds or injures one ofthem is exempted from any penalty.”Article 98 provides for a reduced sen-tence if the crime was committed inextreme “rage.” 39

In Syria, Article 548, which limitedsentences for honor killings to oneyear, was replaced recently with a lawthat mandated a minimum sentence oftwo years. 40

In Haiti, a husband who immediate-ly murders his wife after discovering her

in flagrante delicto (committing adultry)in the conjugal abode is to be pardoned.A wife’s murder of her husband in sim-ilar circumstances is not excused. 41

Similar laws exist — and have ex-isted — throughout Latin America,Africa and Asia. Until 1980 in Colom-bia, a husband could legally kill hiswife for committing adultery. In Braziluntil 1991 wife killings were consid-ered non-criminal “honor killings.” 42

Although there has been pressureto reform such laws, there has beenlittle action. In Jordan activists com-plained that lax laws encourage honorcrimes. “The current law is nothingless than an endorsement for mur-dering women and girls,” said NadyaKhalife, a women’s-rights researcher atHuman Rights Watch. “The women ofJordan need protection from these vi-cious acts enshrined in law, not pref-erential treatment for their killers.” 43

In response, Jordan’s Justice Min-istry announced it would set up a “spe-cial tribunal” to hear these cases. That’snot enough, say activists. “Jordanneeds to send a strong message toperpetrators that they can no longerget away with murder. It should startby amending the penal code to re-flect the seriousness of these crimesand treat them the same as otherkillings,” said Khalife. 44 Efforts to re-form Jordan’s honor killing laws haverepeatedly failed.

Why have these archaic, discrimi-natory laws been so hard to change?In many cases legislators are reluctantto offend fundamentalist and conser-vative factions. As the global advoca-cy movement Violence Is Not Our Cul-ture explains, “As a result of theincreased politicization of culture andreligion in recent years, governmentsare increasingly afraid to combat hard-line and conservative elements in theirsocieties.” 45

A Jordanian parliament member whoopposed reforming honor crime lawsspoke for many when he said,“Women adulterers cause a great threat


to our society because they are themain reasons that such acts take place.. . . If men do not find women withwhom to commit adultery, then theywill become good on their own.” 46

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrovechoed that view. In 2009 after learningthat seven young women had been shotin the head by male relatives and theirbodies dumped by the roadside, he saidthey deserved to die. Claiming the womenhad “loose morals,” Kadyrov said, “If awoman runs around and if a man runsaround with her, both of them are killed.”He also suggested that a man should beable to murder his daughter if she dis-honors the family. “If he doesn’t kill her,what kind of man is he? He brings shameon himself!” Kadyrov said, according toBritian’s Independent newspaper. 47

Many worry that Kadyrov’s approvalof honor killings will encourage moremurders. “What the president says islaw,” said Gistam Sakayeva, a Chechenwomen’s-rights activist. “Because thepresident said this, many will try togain his favor by killing someone, evenif there is no reason.” 48

There have been some small vic-tories, however. In 1993, Tunisiastrengthened its laws governing honorcrimes. There have been no docu-mented cases of honor crimes in Tunisiafor the last 20 years. 49 Turkey hasalso reformed legislation and is regu-larly giving life-in-prison sentences tohonor killers.

In addition to lax legislation, weakor nonexistent prosecution also per-mits honor killings to persist. As TheSt. Petersburg [Fla.] Times noted, “Po-lice rarely investigate honor crimes,and the handful of perpetrators whoare arrested often receive only tokenpunishments. In some settings policemay overtly or covertly champion thekillers as vindicated men. Elsewhere,police act within a network of con-spirators who benefit economically fromhonor killings.” 50

Says IKWRO’s Nammi, “Even if lawsare changed, many countries are re-

luctant to investigate and prosecutehonor killers. Time after time thesekillings are ignored.” In Pakistan, forexample, honor killings are recognizedas a punishable crime, but the laws areonly occasionally enforced. Accordingto a recent study, only 10 percent ofPakistan’s law enforcement personnelrealize that the nation’s laws prohibithonor killings. 51

In fact, one remote rural villagecourt, or jirga, in Pakistan, worriedthat reporting such killings would de-fame the region, ruled in 2006 thatanyone reporting an honor killing tothe court or the police should bekilled. After ruling that a recent honorkilling was “permissible,” jirga mem-ber Malik Faiz Muhammad said, “Westick to our verdict that honour killingis permissible, and those who commitit will not be liable to any punish-ment. We will also not allow the ag-grieved party to report the case to thepolice or file the case before a court.We will kill those who will violate thejirga verdict.” 52

On the other hand, the United King-dom, in response to a growing num-ber of honor killings among immigrantcommunities, created a special unit toinvestigate closed cases to see if theymay have been honor killings.

The U.N.’s Pillay said, “The realityfor most victims, including victims ofhonor killings, is that state institutionsfail them and that most perpetratorsof domestic violence can rely on aculture of impunity for the acts theycommit.” 53

Is the international communitydoing enough to combat honorkillings?

According to a 2000 United Na-tions Population Fund (UNFPA) re-port, “perhaps as many as 5,000 womenand girls a year are murdered bymembers of their own families” inhonor killings. 54 That is the numbermost widely used when describinghonor killings.

But that estimate hasn’t been re-vised since it was first released in 2000.And it is so low as to be meaning-less, according to many women’s-rights activists. “It really gets me angrythat the United Nations has not seenfit to at least revise that figure,” saysNammi. “It is symptomatic of the U.N.’sinaction on honor killings.”

“It’s very hard to extract the statisticof honor killing from the broader sta-tistic of the murder of women,” saysAminata Toure, chief of the UNFPA’sGender, Human Rights and CultureBranch. “Also, states are not very keenon reporting these numbers. However,we are looking at revising our estimate.”

Other experts echo Nammi. SaysGill at London’s Roehampton Univer-sity, “The U.N. has been helpful, butnot as effective as it should be in termsof ending violence against women. It,and other international organizations,need to go beyond talking the talkand must demonstrate genuine polit-ical will to protect vulnerable women.We need to move beyond rhetoric.How many more killings do we needfor something to be done?”

Chesler of the City University ofNew York is blunter: “The United Na-tions gets nothing done when it comesto honor killings. It hasn’t even of-fered women fleeing honor killersshelter or protection. It is ineffective.”

Not so, say U.N. proponents likeJordanian journalist and author Hus-seini. “The U.N. has been pressing theissue of honor killing,” she says, not-ing that Resolution 57/179, adopted bythe General Assembly in 2002, calledfor nations to “investigate thoroughly,prosecute effectively and documentcases of crimes against women com-mitted in the name of honor and pun-ish the perpetrators.” 55

Before that, in 1994, the U.N. Com-mission on Human Rights appointed aspecial rapporteur on violence againstwomen, who has gathered testimonyon honor killings in several reports sincethen. Also, both UNICEF and the U.N.

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Development Fund for Women haveprograms to address honor killings.

“The United Nations is accomplishinga lot by raising the issue of honorkillings [and] helping shed more lighton what used to be a taboo subject,”says Husseini.

“The United Nations cannot enact alaw within a country,” points out Toure.“We are doing much to advocate, edu-cate and urge states to have tougher lawsregarding honor killings and punish per-petrators. We also support women’s or-ganizations to help them speak up.”

The United Nations has also madehonor crimes a recognized form of vi-olence against women in international-rights law. In 1979 the General As-sembly adopted the Convention onthe Elimination of all Forms of Dis-crimination against Women (CEDAW),now commonly viewed as “an inter-national bill of rights for women.” (Thetreaty came into force in 1981, andhas been ratified by every developednation except the United States.) 56

Honor killings violate rights thatCEDAW guarantees to all women, in-cluding the right to freely choose aspouse and equality in marriage. Fur-ther, the treaty specifically obligatesstates to defend women from honorcrimes and requires states to disqual-ify “honor” as a legal defense in actscommitted against women. 57

Critics of the convention claim thatit is vulnerable to politicization. At arecent U.N. meeting to review Israel’scompliance with CEDAW, some Israeliactivists attacked Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) forfailing to raise the issue of honor killingsin the Palestinian territories. Paula Kwe-skin, a legal researcher at the NGOMonitor, a Jerusalem-based researchgroup, claimed that by not reportingon local honor killings, “These groupshave abandoned the women they pur-port to advocate for and, as such, haveonce again called into question thesincerity of their pursuit of universalhuman rights.” 58

Nammi, the Iranian and Kurdishwomen’s advocate, said a CEDAW rep-resentative had “glossed over” thetopic of honor killings in her presen-tation at a recent international confer-ence on violence against women. WhenNammi asked her why, “She told meit was such a sensitive topic that itwas better not to talk too much aboutit. I think it was a case of politicalcorrectness gone too far.”

Both critics and supporters of theUnited Nations and other internationalbodies acknowledge that no interna-tional court has sole jurisdiction overhonor killings, making it the responsi-bility of each sovereign state to enforce

international human-rights law.When they have leverage, though,

some international bodies do pressurecountries to reform their laws onhonor killings. For instance, Turkey foryears has been seeking membershipin the European Union. As one of theprerequisites, the European Council in2004 pressured Turkey to increase sen-tences for honor killers.

“Enforcement is the weak link inthis issue,” says Gill. “We have to putmore pressure on the international com-munity to hold states to account inrelation to international laws and legalinstruments such as CEDAW. Other-wise the laws are meaningless.”

Sixteen-year-old Medine Memi was buried alive last year in this hole in her backyard inKahta, a town in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Memi had been missing for 40 days and thehole had been cemented over when police were tipped off that she had been killed by her

family. Her father and grandfather were later arrested for the murder. Memi had repeatedly told police that her grandfather was beating her for dishonoring the family by

“talking to boys,” but each time the police sent her home. Nearly 1,000 women were murdered in Turkey in 2009 — a 1,400 percent jump over 2002.

Women’s-rights advocates say most of the deaths were probably honor killings.

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BACKGROUNDEarly Origins

The tradition that gives rise to honorkilling, namely that a woman’s

chastity is her family’s property, can betraced to pre-Christian and pre-Islamicperiods. The 3000 B.C. Assyrian legal

code in Mesopotamia, for example, heldthat the father of a defiled virgin couldpunish her in any way he wished.

The 1752 B.C. Code of Hammurabi,the ancient Babylonian set of laws,justifies honor killing related to sexu-al crimes. It held that a woman ac-cused of adultery should throw her-self into the river, no matter howmuch, or how little, evidence there

was against her. “If the finger is point-ed at the wife of a citizen on accountof another man, but she has not beencaught lying with another man, for herhusband’s sake — she shall throw her-self into the river,” the code said. Ifthe woman drowned she was guilty,if she survived she was innocent.

Women had few rights in ancientRome. According to the Roman law ofPaterfamilias, a father had the right toexecute his unmarried daughter for

any indiscretion — real or perceived.As one writer noted, “A father held thepower of life and death over hisdaughter, and upon marriage that powerwas transferred to the daughter’s hus-band. Female adultery was a felonyunder Roman law, and the state ac-tively prosecuted family members andothers for not taking action againstadulterous female relatives.” 59

Roman law held that married womenwere the property of their husbands andcould be sold into slavery, imprisonedor even killed at their husband’s whim.The Roman statesman Cato advised ahusband who discovered his wife com-mitting adultery to kill her without re-sorting to the legal system: “If you catchyour wife in adultery, you can kill herwith impunity; she, however, cannot dareto lay a finger on you if you commitadultery, for it is the law.” 60

Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus,” setin Rome’s late empire, portrays theRoman general Titus killing his daugh-ter Lavinia to restore their honor aftershe was raped and mutilated. As hekills her he cries, “Die, die Lavinia,and thy shame with thee, and withthy shame thy father’s sorrow die!”

In India, according to the ancientLaws of Manu, women were con-sidered immoral. Widows were en-couraged to throw themselves on thefuneral pyre of their husbands (acustom known as suttee) to preservetheir dead spouse’s honor and pre-vent themselves from living a “lifeof dishonor.” Hindu-Aryan husbands“were entitled to cut off the nose andears of wives suspected or foundguilty of infidelity — a custom thateerily echoes various cases of ‘honor’crimes in the Indian subcontinent acrossthe centuries.” 61

Ancient Aztec laws prescribed a deathpenalty for women accused of adul-tery. The sentence was usually carriedout by strangulation or stoning. In an-cient Peru husbands were pardoned ifthey killed their wives after finding themcommitting adultery. Their wives, how-ever, enjoyed no such leniency: Theywere hung by their feet until dead ifthey murdered their husbands. 62

Even children fell victim to what manysee as honor killings. In pre-IslamicArabia fathers sometimes killed theirinfant daughters to prevent them frompossibly bringing dishonor upon the fam-ily if they would one day be accused of

HONOR KILLINGS

Continued on p. 196

Banaz Mahmod, 20, an Iraqi Kurd from south London, was raped, strangled with a boot lace,stuffed into a suitcase and buried in Birmingham, England, in 2006. Her father and uncle

later were convicted of ordering Mahmod’s murder because they thought she had dishonoredthe family by leaving an unhappy arranged marriage and falling in love with another man.

Two men hired by Mahmod’s relatives were later convicted of the murder.

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Chronology1940s-1980sInitial efforts are launched tostrengthen women’s rights.

1946United Nations establishes Com-mission on the Status of Womento promote women’s rights aroundthe world.

1979U.N. General Assembly adoptsConvention on the Elimination ofall forms of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW).

1987India passes Commission of Sati(Prevention) Act, outlawing the once-common Hindu practice of suttee —the ritual burning of widows.

•

1990s Internationalwomen’s movement focuses onviolence against women andgirls, including honor killings.

1990To gain support from tribal leadersand religious fundamentalists, IraqiPresident Saddam Hussein exemptsmen from punishment for commit-ting honor killings.

1992CEDAW committee adopts GeneralRecommendation 19, which saysgovernments may be responsiblefor citizens’ “private acts” — suchas so-called honor crimes — if thestates “fail to act with due dili-gence to prevent violations ofrights, or to investigate and punishacts of violence.”

1993U.N. World Conference on HumanRights adopts the Vienna Conven-

tion, which holds that “the humanrights of women and the girl-childare an inalienable, integral and in-divisible part of human rights.”

1995Fourth World Conference onWomen in Beijing calls on statesto stop violence against womenresulting from “harmful traditionalor customary practices, culturalprejudices and extremism.”

1998U.N. Commission on HumanRights condemns honor killing.

1999Jordan’s Queen Noor holds publicdiscussions on honor killings andpronounces them inconsistent withIslam and Jordanian constitutionallaw, even though parliamentaryleaders claim such killings are jus-tifiable.

•

2000s Pressure inten-sifies on governments to outlawand increase punishment forhonor killings.

2000U.N. estimates that up to 5,000women and girls are victims ofhonor killings each year. . . . Jor-danian lawmakers reject proposedlaw that would impose harsherpenalties on honor killers.

2002U.N. General Assembly Resolution57/179 calls for “elimination ofcrimes against women committedin the name of honor.” . . .Amnesty International reports thatat least three women a day arevictims of honor killings in Pak-istan, and that the murderers arerarely arrested.

2004U.K. reopens 117 cases involvingMuslim women who may havebeen victims of honor killings. . . .After pressure from the EuropeanCouncil, Turkey increases punish-ments for honor killings. . . .U.N. adopts an updated versionof Resolution 57/179, acknowledg-ing that girls also can be victimsof honor crimes.

2006Village court in Pakistan rules thatreporting an honor killing to thecourt or the police is punishableby death.

2009European Parliament describesrise in honor crimes in Europe asan “emergency.” . . . ChechenPresident Ramzan Kadyrov justi-fies the murders of seven womenby claiming they had “loosemorals” and are the property oftheir husbands.

2010Indian government investigates up-surge in honor killings. . . .Afghan government threatens toclose down shelters for womentrying to escape honor killings.U.N. High Commissioner forRefugees reports 960 honorkillings a year in Pakistan. Otherestimates indicate that the numberof honor killings worldwide isprobably close to 20,000.

2011Women’s-rights advocates inTurkey partly blame honorkillings for a 1,400 percent rise inthe femicide rate between 2002and 2009. . . . Phoenix-basedIraqi Muslim is convicted of de-liberately running over and killinghis daughter with his car aftershe refused to take part in anarranged marriage.


sexual misconduct outside of marriage.As a proverb said, “The dispatch ofdaughters is a kindness” and “the bur-ial of daughters is a noble deed.” 63

This practice is condemned and ex-plicitly prohibited in the Quran, ac-cording to Islamic scholars.

But many experts on honor killingbelieve the Bible contains clear ref-erences to honor killing. For exam-ple, Leviticus 21:9 declares, “And thedaughter of any priest, if she profaneherself by playing the whore, sheprofaneth her father. She shall beburnt by fire.” Others argue that averse in Exodus (21:17) advocateshonor killing: “And he that cursethhis father, or his mother, shall sure-ly be put to death.”

Medieval Prejudices

Women’s status remained lowthroughout the Middle Ages. In

the 13th century the Catholic theologianThomas Aquinas claimed that womenwere created only to be “men’s help-mate” and promoted the idea that menshould use “a necessary object, woman,who is needed to preserve the speciesand to provide food and drink.” 64

The witchcraft hysteria that spreadacross Europe between the 14th and17th centuries exemplifies the extentof women’s oppression. As Europeansocieties suffered from the Black Plague,the 100 Years War and other troubledtimes, religious leaders blamed a raftof problems on witches. About 80 per-

cent of the 30,000 to 60,000 peopleexecuted for practicing witchcraft werefemale. As Catholic Inquisitors wrotein the 1480s, “All wickedness is butlittle to the wickedness of a woman.. . . Women are . . . a structural de-fect rooted in the original creation.” 65

While women continued to be sub-jugated elsewhere around the world,their lot began to improve somewhatin the West during the Age of Enlight-enment and the Industrial Revolutionin the 18th and 19th centuries.

During the 19th century increasingnumbers of women began taking jobsoutside the home. As a result, gov-ernments began to pass laws that bothprotected them on the job and grant-ed them more and more legal rights.The British Mines Act of 1842, for

HONOR KILLINGS

Continued from p. 194

It’s early morning in the tiny, rural Punjab village of Meer-wala, and a handful of women waits patiently outside theMukhtar Mai Women’s Crisis Relief Center. Like thousands

of women before them, each of these women has come tothis center to seek out the help of an inspiring hero who hasbecome a symbol of strength and resistance to honor crimes.

Women arrive from all over the region with horribly scarredfaces, victims of acid attacks by suitors who claim the womenhave dishonored them by refusing their marriage proposals. Stillothers have had their ears or noses cut off — a common formof punishment for supposed adulterers. The woman they havecome all this way to see is Muhktar Mai, a humble villagerwho has become famous for courageously standing up for herown rights and now fights for the rights of Pakistani womenand women everywhere.

Her story made headlines around the world. In 2002 a vil-lage tribe, the Mastois, accused Muhktar’s 12-year-old brotherof “bringing dishonor” to them by walking unaccompanied witha 30-year old Mastoi woman. The brother later claimed that hehad been raped by the Mastois and that they were coveringup the rape by falsely claiming he had dishonored them. 1

The higher-caste tribal elders proclaimed that to restore theMastois’ honor, Mukhtar Mai should be gang-raped. They toldher father Ghulam that if he did not hand over Mukhtar, theywould rape all of his daughters.

Accompanied by her father and her brother and clutchingher Quran, Mukhtar approached the tribal elders, head bowed,

and knelt in front of them. She assumed they would “forgive”her, “because I had done nothing wrong,” she remembers.

Instead, four men grabbed her, dragged her into a nearbyshed and gang-raped her as others held her father and uncleat gunpoint. When the father protested, the men only laughed.After the attack, the men threw Mukhtar, nearly naked, ontothe ground outside. Ghulam wrapped a blanket around hisdaughter and carried her home.

Defiled and shamed in front of her entire village, Mukhtarfelt she had only one option. Reporting the crime to the po-lice would only bring more shame to her family. Honor de-manded that she kill herself.

But after lying in bed for three days and contemplating sui-cide, Mukhtar took courage from her parents and the localmullah — who condemned the rape — and made a startlingdecision. She decided to live and report the attack to police.

“I will fight them,” she bravely told her parents. Her deci-sion was unheard of in rural Punjab, a world where men arerarely punished for such so-called honor crimes against women.

Six of the Mastoi men were found guilty of rape and sen-tenced to life imprisonment. The case has been appealed sev-eral times and is still winding its way through Pakistan’s courtsystem, but her attackers remain in jail.

Mukhtar’s initial courtroom victory made her an unlikelyhero for women’s rights in Pakistan. But the meek, low-casteand illiterate woman somehow found the strength and courageto turn her personal tragedy into a triumph for others. She has

Honor Crime Survivor Becomes Women’s ChampionAfter gang-rape, she refused to commit suicide.


example, prohibited women from work-ing underground. John Stuart Mill, asupporter of women’s rights and au-thor of the essay “The Subjection ofWomen,” introduced language in theBritish House of Commons calling forwomen to be granted the right to vote,but it did not pass.

More governments began givingwomen long-denied rights. The Mar-ried Women’s Property Act of 1870and a series of other measures allowedBritish wives to own property. In 1893,New Zealand became the first nationto grant full suffrage to women, fol-lowed over the next two decades byFinland, Norway, Denmark and Ice-land. The United States grantedwomen suffrage in 1920. 66

Honor killings, however, contin-ued. In India, for example, manywomen were killed during the bloody

partition of the country between 1947and 1950. Indeed, as one writernoted, “The partition years can beseen to be the beginning of the tra-dition of honor killing [in India] ona large scale.” 67

Since 1945, when the U.N. wasfounded, the international human-rightscommunity has alerted the world to thecontinuing practice of honor-relatedcrimes and begun to encourage interestin change. Honor crimes have beenrecognized as a form of violence againstwomen in international human-rightslaw because they violate women’s se-curity, right to life and, freedom fromtorture and cruel, inhuman and de-grading treatment.

The U.N.’s Convention on theElimination of all Forms of Discrim-ination against Women defined dis-crimination against women as “any

distinction, exclusion or restrictionmade on the basis of sex which hasthe effect or purpose of impairing ornullifying the recognition, enjoymentor exercise by women, irrespective oftheir marital status, on a basis of equal-ity of men and women, of humanrights and fundamental freedoms inthe political, economic, social, cul-tural, civil or any other field.”

Countries that ratified the treaty werelegally bound to abolish discriminato-ry laws against women, take steps toend trafficking of girls and women andensure women equal access to politicaland public life.

But CEDAW did not specifically men-tion violence, so in 1992 General Rec-ommendation 19 defined gender-basedviolence as a form of discriminationagainst women and explicitly men-tioned “honor crimes.”

used her notoriety to build schools, operate a rape-crisis cen-ter and bring health care to her destitute part of the country.

In doing so she has struck a chord in the hearts of peoplearound the world. Mukhtar Mai “proves that one woman canchange the world,” said former American First Lady Laura Bush.Others have compared her to Martin Luther King, Gandhi andRosa Parks. 2

Mukhtar has received a slew of international awards, beenfeted by heads of state and Hollywood superstars and collab-orated on a memoir, called In the Name of Honor: A Memoir.

More and more women are turning to her for help insteadof surrendering themselves to their local panchayat, or tribalcouncil. She has almost single-handedly rescued countless Pak-istani women from the stranglehold of traditional justice. “Againstall odds, this humble peasant woman has led a quiet revolu-tion,” says noted Pakistani human-rights activist Aseed Gonur.“She is empowering and emancipating women.”

As Mukhtar herself often says, “A mighty river is born froma rainstorm. It just takes someone to be that first drop of rain.”

— Robert Kiener

1 Khalid Tanveer, “Thousands of women rally in Pakistan to support rapevictim,” The Associated Press, March 7, 2005.2 Nicholas D. Kristof, “The Rosa Parks for the 21st Century,” The New YorkTimes, Nov. 8, 2005, p. A27.

Gang-raped on the orders of a Pakistani village council to restore alocal clan’s honor, Mukhtar Mai refused to commit suicide, as is often expected in such cases, and chose instead to help prosecute her attackers. She has since become a

world-renowned opponent of honor killings.

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In 1993 the U.N. Declaration onthe Elimination of Violence AgainstWomen strengthened CEDAW byspecifically defining “violence againstwomen” as “any act of gender-basedviolence that results in, or is likelyto result in, physical, sexual or psy-chological harm or suffering to women,including threats of such acts, coer-cion or arbitrary deprivation of lib-erty, whether occurring in public orin private life.”

The declaration was introduced topressure states into acknowledging thathonor crimes were public, not pri-vate, matters. CEDAW also requiredstates to disqualify honor as a legaldefense for violence against women.Article Four notes: “States should con-demn violence against women andshould not invoke any custom, tradi-tion or religious consideration toavoid their obligations with respect toits elimination.”

Honor killing also was discussed in1995 at the U.N.-sponsored FourthWorld Conference on Women in Bei-jing. A resolution called for states to“take urgent action to combat and elim-inate violence against women, whichis a human-rights violation resultingfrom harmful traditional or customarypractices, cultural prejudices and ex-tremism.”

In 2002 the General Assemblyadopted Resolution 57/179, whichurged states to investigate, docu-ment and prosecute honor crimesin order to work “towards the elim-ination of crimes against womencommitted in the name of honor.”It noted that “states need to inten-sify efforts to raise awareness of theneed to prevent and eliminate crimesagainst women committed in thename of honor, with the aim ofchanging the attitudes and behav-ior that allow such crimes to becommitted.” 68 An updated versionof this resolution adopted in 2004acknowledged that girls also can bevictims of honor crimes.

HONOR KILLINGS

Gruesome AftermathHonor crimes occur in South Asia’s Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities.In India, couples involved in socially taboo relationships or marriages outside oftheir religion or caste are often murdered for sullying the honor of the family orvillage. That’s why villagers in the northern Indian state of Haryana in 2008 allegedlymurdered Sunita Devi (top, left), 21, and her partner, Jasbir Singh, 22, who was fromanother caste. In Pakistan, another type of honor crime involves disfiguring a womanwho “shames” a man. Ayesha Baloch, 18, (bottom, right) was dragged to a fieldin 2006 and held down by her brother-in-law while her husband slit her upper lip andnostril with a knife. The husband claimed she was not a virgin when he married her.

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Although the United Nations, otherinternational organizations and the

media have raised awareness of honorkilling, the atrocities continue and arespreading to immigrant communities inEurope and the United States.

In the United Kingdom police es-timate that at least 12 women are mur-dered annually in honor killings. Britishpolice are training officers to recog-nize the tell-tale signs of such crimes.“Honour-based violence is complicat-ed and a sensitive crime to investi-gate,” said Det. Chief Inspector GerryCampbell of the Metropolitan Police.“It’s fathers, brothers, uncles, mums andcousins, and the victim — potentialvictim — has a fear of criminalising ordemonising their family so they can bereluctant to come forward.” 69

With honor killings increasingthroughout Europe (mostly within Mus-lim immigrant communities), the re-gion is only beginning to come togrips with the phenomenon. In 2009the European Parliamentary Assemblydescribed the outbreak of honor crimesin Europe as an “emergency.” Its Reso-lution 1681 noted, “the problem, farfrom diminishing, has worsened, in-cluding in Europe. It mainly affectswomen, who are its most frequent vic-tims, both in Europe and the rest ofthe world, especially in patriarchal andfundamentalist communities and soci-eties.” It advised nations to create na-tional action plans to combat violenceagainst women, including violence com-mitted in the name of “honor.” 70

The United States is not immune. Overthe last several years at least six menhave been accused of committing honorkillings in the United States. 71 Faleh Al-maleki, an Iranian immigrant, recently wasconvicted of second-degree murder forrunning over his 20-year-old daughter,Noor, with his Jeep because she spurnedan arranged marriage and insisted onliving with her boyfriend.

CURRENTSITUATION

Providing Shelter?

“One step forward, two stepsback.” “Adding insult to injury.”

“Shameful and dangerous.”That’s how women’s activists describe

the recently proposed law in Afghanistan

that would turn the control of women’sshelters over to the government. Underthe law a woman hoping to enter ashelter would have to obtain the ap-proval of eight different government of-fices, and the shelters would be rununder the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

In a country that already lacks safeand secure facilities to protect womenfrom honor-related crimes or domes-tic abuse, many see this law as a se-rious threat to women’s lives and free-dom. “Shelter administrators say theyalready get pressure from high-rankinggovernment officials on behalf of

The late Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon last year called honorkilling a “vicious phenomenon” and issued a fatwa, or a religious ruling, forbidding them. He

said such crimes are considered in Islam as “one of the Kabair [severe sins] whoseperpetrator deserves to enter Hellfire in the afterlife.”

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HONOR KILLINGS

families who want the women backin their communities — even whenit’s likely that the women or girls willbe killed when they return,” said QuilLawrence, a reporter for National Pub-lic Radio. 72

The proposed law has reignited thedebate about the legality of women’s

shelters under Muslim law. In Octo-ber 2010 the Afghan Supreme Courtproclaimed that any woman who ranaway from home could be chargedwith adultery or prostitution unlessshe went to the police or a relative’shome. Also, a 2010 television reportalleged that women’s shelters “are frontsfor prostitution.” 73

Age-old prejudices die hard. “You’vegot a parliament, a cabinet [and] variousministries that are effectively controlledby conservative factions that think verymuch like the Taliban when it comesto things like women’s rights,” saidRachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher forHuman Rights Watch. 74

But in other countries, there aresome positive developments regardingsheltering women from honor crimes.

In 2010 India’s Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh ordered a commissionto study which penalties for honorkilling should be increased, and thenation’s Supreme Court asked the na-

tional and local governments to reporton efforts to stop the crimes. “The In-dian government should press aheadto strengthen its laws and make com-munity leaders liable for punishmentif their edicts incite so-called honorkillings,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, SouthAsia director of Human Rights Watch.“Murder is murder, and customary sen-timent should not prevail over basicrights and the laws of the land.” 75

After a surge in the number of honorkillings in northern India last year, vol-unteers banded together to rescue andshelter young men and women threat-ened with murder for marrying outsideof their caste. Named the “Love Com-

mandos,” the charity has grown to 2,000volunteers from all across India. 76

Marriage-related honor killings occurthroughout India. In many cases fami-lies would rather kill their children thansuffer from the stigma of them marry-ing a partner considered unsuitable. Oftenvillage caste councils sanction the killings.

Nearly every day brings news of caste-related honor killings. For example:

• In Delhi last June a young couplewas tied up and tortured to deathbecause the man was from a lowercaste than his girlfriend. 77

• Two months later a newlywedwas burned to death in NorthernIndia for marrying against the wish-es of his family. 78

• In January a young couple wasslaughtered and left in a field inTamil Nadu because they werefrom different castes. 79

The Love Commandos have rescuedhundreds of couples from possible mur-der and helped them to marry. “In everynook and corner of the country thereare couples under threat,” said LoveCommandos founder Sanjoy Sachdev. 80

Women’s shelters have also sprungup elsewhere, from Asia to Europe tothe United Kingdom. But much moreneeds to be done, according to rightsactivists. Turkey, for instance, has only54 shelters for a population of 74 mil-lion. 81 “Until we can wipe out thisbarbaric practice we need to protectand shelter those who are most vul-nerable,” says Pakistani activist Mai,who runs her own shelter in the ruralPunjab and narrowly escaped being avictim of an honor killing.

Legal Efforts

Women’s-rights groups say someprogress has been made recent-

ly in attacking the problem of honorkillings. “Both the media and women’s-rights activists have helped shine alight on this problem, which has re-

Continued on p. 202

Women’s-rights activist Saltanat Shalkibayeva holds up a picture of 16-year-old honor-killingvictim Morsal Obeidi outside a courthouse in Hamburg, Germany, on Dec. 16, 2008, as themurder trial for Obeidi’s brother begins. The Afghan-born Ahmad Obeidi, 23, was accused ofstabbing his sister more than 20 times because she didn’t live a strict Muslim life. He wassentenced to life in prison. As the verdict was announced, the unrepentant defendant

screamed that if the trial had occurred in Afghanistan, he would have been released long ago.The sign behind Shalkibayeva reads, “Say no to power against woman — live free.”

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At Issue:Are Muslims being unfairly stigmatized in honor crime coverage?yes

yesRANA HUSSEINIJORDANIAN JOURNALIST; AUTHOR, MURDER IN THE NAME OF HONOR

WRITTEN FOR CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER, APRIL 2011

e ver since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, theWestern media have become more biased in their cover-age of Arabs and Muslims, including in regard to how

they report on so-called honor killings.A so-called honor crime occurs when the family of a

woman decides that she has tarnished their reputation and theonly way to eliminate this “headache and shame” is to kill her.I have conducted extensive research and readings and conclud-ed that these kinds of murders are not restricted to any coun-try, class or religion. They have been committed recently bymembers of the Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Yazidi faiths.

Violence against women — including killing for adultery and“illicit” sexual activities — has been the norm since ancient civi-lizations and later in the world’s three main religions: Judaism,Christianity and Islam. All three religions proposed punishmentsfor female [and male] adulterers and “sinners.” In the Dark Ages,women were considered witches and were mostly punished orexecuted for having sex outside the marriage.

The “punishment” of women for “immoral” sexual activitiesin the West began decreasing after the Industrial Revolution,the creation of the pill, multiple wars and other factors. ButWestern women still are being killed by their husbands, ex-spouses and boyfriends because of possessiveness, jealousy,suspicion and infidelity — so-called “crimes of passion.”

Meanwhile, in the Muslim world, women are murdered forthose reasons and for reasons related to family honor. But thecrime is motivated by culture and patriarchal beliefs thatwomen are the property of their male guardians. Societies inthe Muslim world are still developing and progressing. Womenhave become more educated and more independent. This hascreated some clashes with male family members who expectcertain roles for females. That was once the case in the West,and it will change eventually in the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, the Western media’s coverage of women’s issuesand domestic violence has been biased toward Muslims. Forinstance, if the murderer is a Muslim, then he/she is immedi-ately labeled as Muslim. But we are never informed about thereligion of a murderer if he/she is Christian, Jewish, atheist, etc.

This labeling will only increase the hatred and fear of Mus-lims and will further increase intolerance toward religions andtraditions between the East and the West. The Western mediashould take a more objective and responsible approach whencovering such issues.no

PHYLLIS CHESLEREMERITA PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGYAND WOMEN’S STUDIES, RICHMONDCOLLEGE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

WRITTEN FOR CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHER, APRIL 2011

h indu honor killings in India have been covered in themainstream American media, but Muslim honor killingsin the West — such as in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois,

Ohio, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia —have barely been covered. When they are, experts are quotedinsisting that the crime has nothing to do with Islam and thatevery group does it — even though most honor killings in theWest are Muslim-on-Muslim crimes.

Some Muslims say it is unfair for the media to identify awife- or daughter-murderer as a Muslim because the religionis not listed for all those arrested for domestic femicide. ButWestern domestic violence and honor killings are not the same.An honor killing is a conspiracy carried out by the victim’sfamily, which views the killing as heroic. Daughter-stalking anddaughter-killing are not a Western cultural pattern, nor arethey valorized. In the West, wife- and daughter-killers are con-sidered criminals, not heroes; and wife-killers are not assistedby their parents or in-laws.

According to my 2009 and 2010 studies in Middle EastQuarterly, 58 percent of honor killing victims worldwide weremurdered for being “too Western.” Thus, an honor killing ispart of a war waged by one culture against another. The reli-gious and ideological fanaticism that drove Arab men to flyplanes into the World Trade Center is the same fanaticism thatdrove an Iraqi-American Muslim father to run over his daugh-ter with a two-ton jeep because she refused an arranged mar-riage and wore makeup and jeans.

True, nothing in “Islam” per se explicitly condones honorkillings. However, Muslim leaders have not preached againstthis crime, and Muslim-majority countries have rarely prose-cuted it.

Hindus, not Muslims, are being unfairly stigmatized bymedia coverage of honor killings. While Hindus, Sikhs andMuslims do perpetrate honor murders in India, Hindu andSikh immigrants rarely practice the custom in the West. Andthe Hindu Indian government prosecutes it as a crime. India’sMuslim neighbor, Pakistan, resists doing so.

Some fear that singling out only Muslims will stigmatizethem. This “politically correct view” is fashionable but alsodangerous because if we fail to understand this crime we willnever be able to prevent or to prosecute it.


sulted in some governments beingpushed, some shamed, into acting,”explains the UNFPA’s Toure.

Last November at a conference to cel-ebrate the International Day for the Elim-ination of Violence against Women, theKurdish Prime Minister Barham Salih con-demned honor killings and promised hisgovernment would work to end whathe called an “embarrassing” act and theresult of “social backwardness and a pa-triarchal domination.” 82 Activists hopehe’ll keep his word. In 2008 the gov-ernment amended a law that now re-gards honor killing as murder. In the

past killers had been either let off orgiven light sentences.

In fact, one of the most high-profileand horrific honor killings occurred inthe Kurdish region of Iraq in April2007, when an angry mob cheered as17-year-old Duaa Khalil Aswad wasstoned to death in the village of Bashiqa,with nearby security personnel watch-ing. Cell-phone videos of the murdercirculated on the Internet, showing the

teenager begging for mercy before aman smashed her skull with a cinderblock. Aswad’s male relatives — mem-bers of the secretive Yazidi religioussect — are believed to have arrangedher death because she had dated aSunni boy. The Yazidi religion includeselements of Zoroastrianism, Judaism,Christianity and Islam — and forbidsinterfaith relationships. 83

Four men (including some of Aswad’srelatives) were convicted and sen-tenced to die for the murder but werereleased from prison a year later. 84

The case exacerbated sectarian ten-sion, which was rampant at the time

in Iraq. Two weeks after the murder,more than 20 Yazidis in nearby Mosulwere dragged from a bus and shot todeath, allegedly by Sunni gunmen inretribution for Aswad’s murder. 85

Last year a court in the northernIndia state of Haryana sentenced fivemen to death and one to life in prisonfor killing a young couple who mar-ried against the wishes of village el-ders. The capital sentences were the

first ever handed down in an honorkilling case. Women’s-rights activists havehailed the decision, which is a signifi-cant break with tradition. “An ugly nexusbetween politicians, policemen and theseself-appointed guardians of tradition —who tend to dominate elected localassemblies as well as unelected casteones — keeps most honour killingsout of court,” noted The Economist. 86

Turkey’s response to its grim newskyrocketing femicide statistics — ad-mitting the problem and condemningit — is also seen as a step forward.“Too many governments have been re-luctant to even speak out about honorkillings,” says Gill, of London’s Roe-hampton University. “It’s a necessarystep to stopping this violence.”

While Turkey recently strengthenedits punishment for honor killings toinclude life inprisonment, regardless ofthe age of the murderer, nearby Syriahas made what many see as a “token”change in punishing such killers: Thetwo-year sentence was raised to be-tween five and seven years.

Activists have been pressuring theSyrian government to increase thepunishment for honor killers, somany saw it as a positive sign whena religious leader publicly condemnedsuch killings and even pushed forlonger sentences for those convictedof honor killings.

“He who kills on claims of honouris a killer, and should be punished,”said Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmen Badral-Din Hassoun. “Islamic jurisprudencedoesn’t allow people to live by theirown laws.” 87

OUTLOOKNeeded: Three ‘Ps’

Jordanian journalist Husseini beganwriting about honor killings in 1993.

HONOR KILLINGS

Continued from p. 200

The group Stop Islamization of America uses a photo of slain Texas teenagers Amina andSarah Said in an anti-honor-killing advertising campaign in Chicago. The Lewisville, Texas,sisters were found shot dead in their father’s abandoned cab in a parking lot near

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Jan. 1, 2008. Police believe their Egyptian-born father, Yaser Abdel Said — who has been missing since the murder —

killed the girls for refusing to accept his culture and religious beliefs. Muslim groups say the murders had nothing to do with Islam.

PR N

ewsFoto/Stop

Islamization of America


Her investigations, newspaper articles,speeches and book have made her aninternational expert on the grim sub-ject. She has a perspective on whatshe insists on calling “so-called honorkillings” that few others can rival. Yet,despite all the horrors that she hasseen and reported on over the lasttwo decades, she is an optimist.

“I think we are making a lot ofprogress,” she notes. “Twenty yearsago no one wanted to talk about thissubject. It was denied, hushed up; itwas taboo. Today, however, the topicis being debated, and it’s featured inthe press, on television and even inmovies and plays. It’s even being talkedabout on Facebook.”

Like other women’s-rights propo-nents, Husseini sees the growing will-ingness to address the problem ofhonor killings as the first step in pre-vention and better prosecution. “Thesecrimes are not going to end overnight;we have to raise awareness, changelaws, educate and empower women,convince religious and cultural lead-ers to condemn the murders, and more.But I see more and more people ex-pressing willingness for better lawsand more protection for women. I thinkthere will be less and less of thesemurders as time goes on.”

A recent honor killing prosecutionin the United Kingdom supports Hus-seini’s opinion. In December 2009Mehmet Goren was convicted of mur-dering his 15-year-old daughter Tulaybecause he believed she had shamedhim. 88 But the conviction only hap-pened after Goren’s wife came for-ward — 10 years after the murder —to testify against her husband.

“She only broke her silence becauseshe was convinced she would be pro-tected,” explains London-based women’s-rights activist Nammi. “A case like thisgives others in the community the courageto come forward and help put an endto these killings. Because of this, andother reasons, I think we will see lesshonor killings as time goes on.”

As Husseini notes, “There is still somuch that needs to be done to tackle thiscrime. These murders are just starting toreceive the attention they deserve.” Manybelieve that as more societies modern-ize, the less prone they will be to ac-cept honor killings. Experts stress theneed for “the three P’s”: prevention, pro-tection and prosecution. On their wishlists are such requirements as:

• Improving the education andemancipation of women,

• Raising legislative, law enforcementand public awareness,

• Researching the causes and con-sequences of honor killings, and

• Sheltering women threatened withthese crimes.

“The more seriously the world takeshonor killings, the less they will occur,”says Gill, at Roehampton University.

“Violence against women is a perva-sive problem across the globe. Honorkilling is only one of its many modes,but reforming [the concept of] honor isrelevant, I believe, to every form of gen-dered violence,” noted Princeton’s Appi-ah. “Every society needs to sustain codesin which assaulting a woman — assault-ing anyone — in your own family is asource of dishonor, a cause of shame.” 89

Pakistan’s activist Mai speaks formany women’s-rights supporters whenshe adds, “How important is this? It’sa matter of life and death.”

Notes

1 Omar Waraich, “Five women beaten and buriedalive in Pakistan ‘honour killing,’ ” Sept. 2, 2008,www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/five-women-beaten-and-buried-alive-in-pakistan-honour-killing-915714.html. See also SalmanMasood, “Pakistan begins inquiry into deaths of5 women,” The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2008;and “Teens buried alive in honor killing,” UPI.com,Sept. 5, 2008, www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/05/Teens-buried-alive-in-honor-killing/UPI-52141220645085/#ixzz1JKFutCns.2 Ibid.3 “Pakistan: Hundreds of women die for ‘hon-our’ each year,” IRIN News, Jan. 27, 2011, www.

irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91753.4 Michael Winter, “Bangladeshi teen dies fromsharia lashing after reportedly being raped,”USA Today, Feb. 2, 2011, http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/02/bangladeshi-teen-dies-from-sharia-lashing-after-reportedly-being-raped/1.5 Anbarasan Ethirajan, “Four arrested afterBangladesh girl ‘lashed to death,’ ” BBC News,Feb. 2, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12344959.6 Manar Ammar, “Egypt: Honor killing hitsAlexandria,” Bikyamasr, Sept. 29, 2010, http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=17594.7 Robert Tait, “Turkish girl, 16, buried alive‘for talking to boys,’ ” Guardian, Feb. 4, 2010,www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey.8 “Facts and Figures on Harmful TraditionalPractices 2007,” UNIFEM, www.unifem.org/gender_issues/violence_against_women/facts_figures.php?page=4.9 Robert Fisk, “The crime wave that shamesthe world,” The Independent, Sept. 7, 2010, www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-crimewave-that-shames-the-world-2072201.html.10 Muhammad Zamir Aassadi, “Violence againstwomen remains high in Pakistan,” The NewAmerican, Feb. 9, 2011, www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/asia-mainmenu-33/6246-violence-against-women-remains-high-in-pakistan.11 “Syria increases punishment for honorkilling,” Jerusalem Post, Jan. 10, 2011, www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=203003.12 “Iraq: Kurdish government promises moreaction on honour killings,” IRIN News, Nov. 27,2010, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=91216.13 Dorian Jones, “Turkey’s murder rate of womenskyrockets,” VOA, Feb. 28, 2011, www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Turkeys-Murder-Rate-of-Women-Skyrockets-117093538.html.14 Ibid.15 “Towards Ending Violence Against Womenin South Asia,” Oxfam, August 2004, p. 3, www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/issues/gender/downloads/bp66_evaw.pdf.16 Talea Miller, “Study finds honor killings amajor portion of Pakistan’s homicides,” PBSNewshour, April PBS 6, 2009, www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/jan-june09/pakistan_0406.html.17 “Statement by UN High Commissioner forHuman Rights, Navi Pillay: Domestic violenceand killing in the name of honour,” March 8,


2010,www.un.org/en/events/women/iwd/2010/documents/HCHR_womenday_2010_statement.pdf.18 “In-laws incensed by marriage mutilate hus-band in Pakistan,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 4, 2007,http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/04/world/fg-beating4.19 “Civil and political rights, including the ques-tion of disappearances and summary execu-tions,” United Nations Commission on HumanRights, Dec. 22, 2003, www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/docs/62chr/ecn4-2006-53-Add2.doc.20 Centre for Social Cohesion, “Crimes of theCommunity: Honour-based Violence in theUK,” Feb. 6, 2008, p. 37, www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1229624550_1.pdf. Also see, “A ques-tion of honour: Police say 17,000 women arevictims every year,” The Independent, Feb. 10,2008, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/a-question-of-honour-police-say-17000-women-are-victims-every-year-780522.html.21 Taner Edis, “Another Honor Killing,” TheSecular Outpost, Dec. 13, 2010, http://secularoutpost.infidels.org/2010/12/another-honor-killing.html.22 Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Honor Code(2010), p. 146.23 “Honour Killings,” “Chapter 3: Ending Vio-lence against Women and Girls,” State of theWorld 2000, U.N. Population Fund, www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html.24 James Emery, “Reputation is everything:Honor Killings Among the Palestinians,” TheWorld & I, May 2003, www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2003/may/clpub.asp.25 “Father says killed daughter in Canadianhijab case,” Reuters, Dec. 11, 2007, www.reuters.com/article/2007/12/11/us-crime-hijab-idUSN1151774720071211.26 “Canadian Muslim teen’s dad charged in hermurder; friends say they clashed over head

scarf,” The Associated Press, Dec. 12, 2007,www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316550,00.html.27 “Muslim leaders say teen’s killing was do-mestic violence,” Canadian Press, Dec. 14, 2007,www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2007/12/14/aqsa-parvez.html.28 Ibid.29 For more information, see Phyllis Chesler,“Are honor killings simply domestic violence,”Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2009, pp. 61-69,www.meforum.org/2067/are-honor-killings-simply-domestic-violence.30 Rochelle L. Terman, “To specify or singleout: should we use the term ‘Honor killing?’ ”Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 7,Issue 1, 2010, www.bepress.com/mwjhr/vol7/iss1/art2/.31 “Honor killing perpetrators welcomed bysociety, study reveals,” Today’s Zaman, July 12,2008, www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=147349&bolum=101www.32 Ibid.33 Ibid.34 Anna Momigliano, “Honor killing by anyother name,” The Nation, Feb. 2, 2010, www.thenation.com/article/honor-killing-any-other-name.35 Chris Selley, “Recipe to reduce honorkillings,” National Post, June 18, 2010, www.nationalpost.com/m/blog.html?b=fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/06/18/chris-selley-recipe-to-reduce-honour-killings&s=Opinion.36 John L. Esposito and Sheila B. Lalwani,“Domestic violence: a global problem, not areligious one,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 31, 2010,http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/31/opinion/la-oew-esposito-lalwani-women-violenc20101031.37 “Statement by the U.N. High Commissionerfor Human Rights, Navi Pillay,” op. cit.38 Lynn Welchman, “Extracted provisions from

the penal codes of Arab states relevant to‘crimes of honour,’ ” School of Oriental andAfrican Studies, University of London, www.soas.ac.uk/honourcrimes/resources/file55421.pdf.39 “Jordan: Tribunals no substitute for reformson ‘honor killings,’ ” Human Rights Watch,Sept. 3, 2009, www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/01/jordan-tribunals-no-substitute-reforms-honor-killings.40 “Syria amends honour killing law,” BBCNews, July 2, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8130639.stm.41 Welchman, op. cit.42 “Violence Against Women: Issue of HonorKilling,” Legal Service India.com, www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l243-Violence-against-woman--Issue-Of-Honor-killing.html.43 “Jordan: Tribunals no substitute for reformson ‘honor killings,’ ” op. cit.44 Ibid.45 “Frequently Asked Questions about honorkilling,” www.stop-stoning.org/node/12.46 Quoted in Broken Bodies, Broken Dreams,IRIN (2005), p. 140, www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72831.47 Lynne Berry, “Chechen president Kadyrovdefends honor killings,” St. Petersburg [Fla.]Times, March 3, 2009, www.sptimes.ru/index.php?story_id=28409&action_id=2. See also Fisk,op. cit.48 Ibid.49 Broken Bodies, Broken Dreams, op. cit.50 Berry, op. cit.51 “In the name of honour,” Tribune [Pak-istan], Aug. 12, 2010, http://tribune.com.pk/story/38468/in-the-name-of-honour-2/.52 Zahid Jan, “Jirga to kill anyone reportinghonor killing cases to the police,” DailyTimes, April 29, 2006, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\29\story_29-4-2006_pg7_1.53 “Statement by the U.N. High Commissionerfor Human Rights, Navi Pillay,” op. cit.54 “State of World Population 2000,” op. cit.55 “Honour Related Violence: European Re-source Book and good practice,” Kvinnoforum,2005, www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/743-roles-and-responsibilities-of-police.html.56 For background on CEDAW, see KarenFoerstel, “Women’s Rights,” CQ Global Re-searcher, May 1, 2008, pp. 115-147.57 “Honor Crimes,” MADRE, March 20, 2006,www.madre.org/index/press-room-4/news/honor-crimes-44.html.58 Paula Kweskin, “NGOs fail Palestinian womenat the UN,” In the Moment, Feb. 24, 2011, www.

HONOR KILLINGS

About the Author

Robert Kiener is an award-winning writer whose workhas appeared in the London Sunday Times, The ChristianScience Monitor, The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, TimeLife Books, Asia Inc. and other publications. For more thantwo decades he lived and worked as an editor and cor-respondent in Guam, Hong Kong, Canada and England andis now based in the United States. He frequently travels toAsia and Europe to report on international issues. He holdsan M.A. in Asian Studies from Hong Kong University and anM.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University.


momentmagazine.wordpress.com/2011/02/24.59 Matthew Goldstein, “The biological rootsof heat-of-passion crimes and honor killings,”Politics and the Life Sciences, September 2002,Vol. 21, No. 2, www.politicsandthelifesciences.org/Contents/Contents-2002-9/PLS2002-9-3.pdf.60 Quoted in ibid., p. 29.61 Umm Rashid, “Honour Crimes and Muslims,”IslamicAwakening.com, www.islamicawakening.com/print.php?articleID=1330&.62 Goldstein, op. cit.63 “Women in pre-Islamic Arabia,” MuslimWomen’s League, September 1995, www.mwlusa.org/topics/history/herstory.html.64 For background, see Foerstel, op. cit.65 Ibid.66 Ibid.67 Sango Bidani, “A short note on honourkilling in India,” The Himalayan Voice, Oct. 25,2020, http://thehimalayanvoice.blogspot.com/2010/10/honour-killings-on-rise-in-both-nepal.html.68 “Resolutions adopted by the General As-sembly at its 57th Session, United Nations, 2002,www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/r57.htm.69 Tracy McVeigh, “Ending the silence on‘honor killing,’ ” Observer, Oct. 25, 2009, www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14909:ending-the-silence&catid=64:sunday-reading&Itemid=82.70 Valentina Colombo, “Honor killings in Europe,”Hudson Institute, Feb. 8, 2011, www.hudson-ny.org/1849/honor-killings-in-europe.71 Oren Dorrell, “ ‘Honor killings’ in USAraise concerns,” USA Today, Nov. 30, 2009,www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-29-honor-killings-in-the-US_N.htm.72 Quil Lawrence, “Kabul seeks control of women’sshelters,” National Public Radio, Feb. 21, 2011,www.npr.org/2011/02/21/133865996/kabul-seeks-control-of-womens-shelters.73 Ibid.74 Ibid.75 “India: prosecute rampant ‘honor’ killings,”Human Rights Watch, July 18, 2010, www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/16/india-prosecute-rampant-honor-killings.76 Gethin Chamberlain, “Honor killings: savedfrom India’s caste system by Love Commandos,”Observer, Oct. 10, 2010, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/honour-killings-caste-love-commandos.77 Geerta Pandey, “Indian community torn apartby ‘honour killings,’ ” BBC News, June 16, 2010,www.bbc.co.uk/news/10334529.78 Chamberlain, op. cit.79 Ibid.

80 Ibid.81 Dorian Jones, “Brutal death of 16-year-oldreopens debate about honor killings in Turkey,”Voice of America, Feb. 15, 2010, www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Brutal-Death-of-16-Year-Old-Reopens-Debate-Over-Honor-Killings-in-Turkey-84407947.html.82 “Iraq: Kurdish government promises moreaction on honour killings,” IRIN News, Nov. 27,2010, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=91216.83 “Iraqi girl’s horrific death; Teen’s slaying atthe hands of a mob highlights religious in-tolerance that pervades the nation,” ChicagoTribune, May 22, 2007, p. C1.84 “Four sentenced to death over Du’a KhalilAswad honor killing,” Kurdnet.com, March 30,

2010, www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/3/state3701.htm.85 “Iraqi girl’s horrific death; Teen’s slaying atthe hands of a mob highlights religious in-tolerance that pervades the nation,” op. cit.86 “A disgrace to the village,” The Economist,April 15, 2010, www.economist.com/realarticleid.cfm?redirect_id=15912850.87 “Syria: popular campaign takes aim at ‘ho-nour killings,’ ” IRIN News, Feb. 15, 2011,www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=25612.88 “Father convicted of 1999 ‘honour’ killing ofhis daughter,” The Crown Prosecution Service,Dec. 17, 2009, www.cps.gov.uk/news/press_releases/166_09/.89 Appiah, op. cit., p. 169.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONAmnesty International, 1 Easton Street, London, WC1X 0DW, U.K.; +44-20-74135500; www.amnesty.org. International activist movement that campaigns toend human-rights abuses, including honor crimes.

Arab Regional Resource Center on Violence Against Women, P.O. Box 23215,Amman 11115, Jordan; 962 6 5543864; 3www.amanjordan.org. Women’s organizationthat monitors humans-rights abuses in the Middle East.

Center for Social Cohesion, 210 Pentonville Rd., London, N1 9JY, England;(207) 3409641; www.socialcohesion.co.uk. Specializes in studying radicalizationand extremism in Britain.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Aiwan-I-Jamjoor, 107-Tipu Block,New Garden Town, Lahore, Pakistan; 92 42 35838341; www.hrcp.cjb.net. Long-established nongovernmental organization that promotes human rights and democraticreforms in Pakistan.

Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10118; (212) 290-4700;www.hrw.org. The largest U.S. human-rights organization; investigates abusesaround the world, including honor crimes and honor killings.

Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization, P.O. Box 65840, London,EC2P 2FS, U.K.; 0207 920 6460; www.ikwro.org.uk. International charity committedto women’s equality, human rights and empowerment of women.

United Nations Development Fund for Women, 304 E. 45th St., 15th Floor,New York, NY 10017; (212) 906-6400; www.unifem.org. Promotes women’s em-powerment and gender equality.

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,Palais Wilson, 52 rue des Paquis, CH-1201, Geneva, Switzerland; 41 22 917 9220;www.ohchr.org. Supports the work of the U.N. human-rights offices, such as theHuman Rights Council.

United Nations Population Fund, 605 Third Ave., New York, NY 10158; (212)297-5000; www.unfpa.org. International development agency that promotes “the rightof every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.”

Women for Women International, 4455 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 200,Washington, DC 20008; (202) 737-7705; www.womenforwomen.org. Nonprofitgroup that helps female victims of violence return to self-sufficiency.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Books

Appiah, Kwame Anthony, The Honor Code: How MoralRevolutions Happen, W. W. Norton & Co., 2010.A Princeton professor of philosophy offers case studies of

“moral revolutions” against four traditional practices: slavetrading, dueling, Chinese foot binding and honor killing.

Husseini, Rana, Murder in the Name of Honor, OneworldPublications, 2009.A Jordanian journalist examines the phenomenon in her own

country and around the world.

Mai, Mukhtar, In the Name of Honor, Aria Books, 2006.A rural Pakistani woman describes how she was gang-

raped as punishment for her brother’s alleged “honor crime.”She then successfully prosecuted her attackers.

Articles

Fisk, Robert, “The crime wave that shames the world,”The Independent, Sept. 7, 2010, www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/the-crimewave-that-shames-the-world-2072201.html.A Beirut-based British correspondent examines honor killing

in the Middle East and South Asia.

Goldstein, Matthew, “The biological roots of heat-of-passioncrimes and honor killings,” Politics and the Life Sciences,Vol. 21, No. 2, September 2002, pp. 20-37.The author explores the historical development of honor-

based crimes ranging from crimes of passion to honor killings.

Husseini, Rana, “Initiative seeks to change mindset onso-called honour crimes,”The Jordan Times, Feb. 1, 2011,www.jordantimes.com/?news=34406.The Jordanian journalist and crusader against honor crimes re-

ports on a recent study of Jordanian attitudes toward such crimes.

Jones, Dorian, “Turkey’s murder rate of women skyrockets,”Voice of America, Feb. 28, 2011, www.voanews.com.The number of women murdered in Turkey rose 1,400 per-

cent between 2002 and 2009, with many of the crimes at-tributed to honor killings.

Pandey, Geeta, “Indian community torn apart by ‘honourkillings,’ ” BBC News, June 16, 2010, www.bbc.co.uk/news/10334529.An Indian journalist examines the rise of honor killings in

New Delhi.

Rose, Jacqueline, “A Piece of White Silk,” London Reviewof Books, Nov. 5, 2009, pp. 5-8, www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n21/

jacqueline-rose/a-piece-of-white-silk.In a review of three books on honor killings, Rose ex-

plores common misconceptions about the crimes.

Terman, Rochelle L., “To Specify or Single Out: Should WeUse the Term ‘Honor Killing?’ ”Muslim World Journal ofHuman Rights, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Article 2, 2010, www.bepress.com/mwjhr/vol7/iss1/art2/.An academic explores the debate over the use of the term

“honor killing.”

Reports and Studies

“Crimes of the Community,” Centre for Social Cohesion,2010, www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1229624550_1.pdf.A U.K.-based think tank investigates the characteristics of

honor killings that occur in immigrant communities. The re-port also focuses on forced marriage, domestic violence andfemale genital mutilation.

“Culture of Discrimination: A Factsheet on HonorKillings,” Amnesty International, www.amnestyusa.org.A human-rights organization provides a concise, fact-filled

overview of honor killings.

“Harmful Traditional Practices and Implementation ofthe Law on the Elimination of Violence against Womenin Afghanistan,” U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan,December 2010, http://unama.unmissions.org/Portals/UNAMA/Publication/HTP%20REPORT_ENG.pdf.The report documents the prevalence of customary practices

that violate women’s rights, including honor killings.

“Trapped by Violence,”Amnesty International, March 2009,www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/feature-stories/trapped-violence-women-iraq-20090420.The human-rights organization examines gender-based violence

against women in Iraq.

Chesler, Phyllis, “Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings,”Middle East Quarterly, spring 2010, www.meforum.org/2646/worldwide-trends-in-honor-killings.A professor emerita of psychology and women’s studies at

the City University of New York investigates honor killingsover a 20-year period.

Patel, Sujan, and Muhammad Gadit, “Kaor-Kari: A Formof Honour Killing in Pakistan,” Transcultural Psychiatry,2008, pp. 683-294, http://tps.sagepub.com/content/45/4/683.full.pdf+html.Pakistan-born academics now in Canada investigate the psy-

chiatric issues associated with honor killings in Pakistan, in-cluding its origins, motives and socio-cultural influences.

Selected Sources


Bibliography

Incidents

“British Couple Shot Dead in ‘Honour Killing,’ ” The Ex-press (England), Aug. 9, 2010, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1301264/British-couple-gunned-Pakistan-suspected-honour-killing.html.A Pakistani couple in Britain has been shot in Pakistan after

ending the marriage of their daughter, following a dispute.

“Man Sought After Wife Burnt to Death Found in Fiji,”New Zealand Press Association, Jan. 25, 2011.A New Zealand man has been found in Fiji after allegedly

murdering his wife in an honor killing.

“More Than 1,000 Honour Killings in India Every Year,”Press Trust of India, July 3, 2010, www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-07-04/india/28273812_1_honour-killings-marriages-heinous-crime.More than 1,000 young Indians are murdered in honor killings

annually, largely because they object to forced marriages.

Smith, Lewis, “Iraqi Pair Jailed for Life for ‘Honour Killing’of Woman,” The Independent (U.K.), Nov. 11, 2010, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/iraqi-pair-jailed-for-life-for-honour-killing-of-woman-2130922.html.Two men extradited to England from Iraq after executing

a woman in a so-called “honor killing” were sentenced tolife in prison.

Islam

“A Matter of Dishonour,” The Independent (U.K.), Sept. 10,2010.Many believe that Muslims have taken excessive criticism

for honor killings because they are an easy political target.

“Fundamentalists Accused of Hijacking Traditional Val-ues,”The Hindu (India), March 4, 2011, www.hindu.com/2011/03/04/stories/2011030462610500.htm.Religious fundamentalists find themselves struggling to deal

with modernity and must address objections to traditionalpractices, such as honor killings and dowry deaths.

Ferris, Kevin, “Boldly Confronting the Problems of Islam,”The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 2010, p. C5, http://articles.philly.com/2010-06-20/news/24966346_1_islamic-ayaan-hirsi-ali-oppress-women.A female Muslim author has established a foundation dedi-

cated to addressing aspects of Islam that oppress females, oneof which is honor violence and killings.

Myers, Amanda Lee, “Iraqi Immigrant To Be Tried forDaughter’s Death,”The Associated Press, Jan. 2, 2011, www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40878687/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/.

An Iraqi immigrant in Arizona will be tried for allegedlykilling his daughter for being too Westernized.

Legislation

“Between Honour Killings, Child Brides and Force Mar-riages,”This Day (Nigeria), Oct. 12, 2010, www.thisdaylive.com/articles/between-honour-killings-child-brides-and-forced-marriages/76808/.Experts say any effective honor killing laws must have pro-

visions specific to the crime and not just tied to a country’spenal code.

“Consensus Eludes GOM, Honour Killing Law Will Have toWait,”Economic Times (India), Aug. 28, 2010, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-08-28/news/27570501_1_honour-killings-caste-panchayats-khap-panchayats.India’s ministers have been unable to introduce legislation

to counter honor killings, largely because they cannot reacha consensus on the details.

“Sindh Assembly Passes Resolution Against Honour Killing,”Pakistan Press International Information Services, Nov. 5,2010.The Pakistani Provincial Assembly of Sindh has passed a

resolution condemning recent honor killings and has urgedthe government to prosecute them as murder cases.

Lakshmi, Rama, “Battle of Clan, Caste, Culture and Cupid,”Arab News, May 25, 2010, p. A8, http://arabnews.com/world/article58712.ece.Political fallout from a widely publicized honor killing has

forced India’s lawmakers to revisit the country’s marriage rules.

Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

CITING CQ GLOBAL RESEARCHERSample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography

include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats

vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.

MLA STYLEFlamini, Roland. “Nuclear Proliferation.” CQ Global Re-

searcher 1 Apr. 2007: 1-24.

APA STYLEFlamini, R. (2007, April 1). Nuclear proliferation. CQ Global

Researcher, 1, 1-24.

CHICAGO STYLEFlamini, Roland. “Nuclear Proliferation.” CQ Global Researcher,

April 1, 2007, 1-24.

www.globalresearcher.com April 19, 2011 207

The Next Step:

Voices From Abroad:

MARY JOHNDirector, Centre for

Women’s DevelopmentStudies, India

A betrayal of trust“People pressured into

killing believe they otherwiseare betraying their communi-ty when, in fact, they are be-traying their family. They arebetraying their authority andthe trust of young people intheir care. These are guardianskilling the young. By calling it‘honour killing,’ you rationaliseit when, in fact, you are thevictim of so-called ‘custom.’ ”

Times of India, June 2010

AHMED NAJDAWIAttorney, Jordan

Inevitable remorse“There is remorse, for sure.

They commit these crimes,motivated by the cultural as-pects. But when time calmsthem down, they feel regret.Nobody kills a wife or a sis-ter or a daughter without laterfeeling remorse.”

The Independent, September2010

DHARMENDRA PATHAKFather of honor killingvictim Nirupama Pathak

India

Part of our culture“This is part and parcel of

our culture, that you marryinto your own caste. Every so-ciety has its own culture. Everysociety has its own traditions.”

The New York Times, July 2010

AZZA SULEIMANActivist, Center for Egyptian Women’s

Legal Assistance, Egypt

A lenient law“In Lebanon and Jordan,

they have [laws] that specif-ically refer to ‘honour’killings. But in Egypt, thejudge believes he has a spe-cial authority, and Article 17of the law allows judges touse clemency if they wishto reduce sentences —from 25 years, for example,to six months. The religiousand traditional backgroundof the judges affects them.. . . This provides leniencyfor the perpetrators.”

The Independent (U.K.) September 2010

SHEIKH HAMZAMANSOUR

Parliamentary Leader, Is-lamic Action Front, Jordan

Issue is being exaggerated“This whole issue is being

exaggerated, and the reasonbehind it is not innocent. It’sas if the government is givingup our personality to turn usinto a Westernised society.”

Sunday Independent (Ireland)December 2009

JOHN AUSTINMember of Parliament,

United Kingdom

Unacceptable“In Turkey the figures for

2007 show that over 200 womenwere killed here in the name

killing is not in enmity, ri-valry or greed. . . . There isneed to cover the entire gamutof this ghastly crime by in-cluding all the attendant actsof omission and commissionleading to the offence.”

The Hindu (India), August 2010

RONA AMBROSEMinister for Status of

Women, Canada

Unacceptable in Canada“People come to this coun-

try to enjoy and embrace thevalues and opportunities thatCanada provides, and as a na-tion we are proud of the con-tributions made by our diversecultural communities. How-ever, killing or mutilating any-one, least of all a family mem-ber, is utterly unacceptableunder all circumstances andwill be prosecuted to the fullextent of the law.”

Canada Newswire, July 2010

BURAK OZUGERGINSpokesman, Ministry ofForeign Affairs, Turkey

Turkey doing its part“Turkey considered honour

killings as a violation of humanrights. Together with the Unit-ed Kingdom, Turkey submit-ted a draft to the United Na-tions General Assembly in 2004to prevent honour killings. Also,the new penal code whichwas approved by the Turkishparliament in 2004 . . . in-cluded many arrangementsabout gender equality.”

Anatolia (news agency)(Turkey), February 2010

of family or community honor,and that is frankly unaccept-able in a modern Europe.”

Thai Press Reports, May 2009

MEWA SINGH MORPresident, Sarv Khap(clan council), India

Destroying social fabric“It is a shame that so many

girls and boys are elopingnowadays, under the influ-ence of TV and movies. Ourconstitution tells our youthwhat their rights are but saysnothing about their social du-ties. These couples are likean epidemic. They are de-stroying our social fabric.”

The Washington Post, May 2010

RAVINDER KAURSocial Science Professor,Indian Institute of Tech-

nology, India

The killers are relatives“What shocks us about

such murders is that they areperpetrated by close andtrusted relatives, by thosewho we normally expect tolove, nurture and protect us.Family murders strike at ourself-image as a society of close-knit, resilient families in a worldwhere we feel the family haslargely self-destructed.”

Indian Express, July 2010

GUMAN SINGHFormer Judge, Rajasthan

High Court, India

A comprehensive law“The origin of honour

coe report

Documents