Honour Killings
https://www.humanreligions.info/honour_killings.html
By Vexen Crabtree 2024
#christianity_and_women #gender_bias #honour_killings #islam #islam_and_women #Middle_East #misogyny #pakistan #patriarchalism #patriarchy #religion_and_women
Honour killings occur when male members of a family murder a female, typically at a young age, for what they perceive to be misconduct, ordinarily, for resisting male control. Historically, they once occurred in strictly Catholic countries like Spain, and Orthodox areas in the Balkans. Currently, the UN estimates that 5000 occur annually, mostly in the Middle East, Africa and south Asia. It embodies violent and prejudicial misogyny, and patriarchalism. Typical triggers include the disinclination to follow the religion of the parents, not dressing as is their cultural norm, refusing an arranged marriage, dating someone not approved of by the parents, blasphemy against the family religion or for being raped. Although that last one sounds especially horrible, the Qur'an stipulates that if rape cannot be proven then the victim is as bad as having committed infidelity (the punishment for which can be death). Multiple countries that see higher numbers of honour killings are devoutly Muslim, but, the practice itself is not Quranic, but cultural. Globally, Pakistan may be the worst country for honour killings. Within susceptible cultures, women are often at such a disadvantage that little can be done. Such places are nearly always strictly religious, with tightly protected male-dominated religious institutions.1,2,3,4
- Example Events That Led to an Honour Killing
- Terrible Symptoms of Unfettered Male Culture
- Which Countries are Susceptible
- Links
1. Example Events That Led to an Honour Killing
Bruce Bawer (2006)5 provides multiple example events that have led to honour killings, and, summaries of numbers of incidents. Ironically, in each case the murder brings, as it should, actual dishonour on the family. These cases were collected in 2007, hence they focus on the years before then - it doesn't mean that there was a sudden outbreak in that period.
- Rape victims are sometimes killed by their own family to restore 'honour'.
- In the Hague in 2004-5, eleven women were victims of honour killings.
- In 2004, Britain's public prosecutor began reinvestigating 117 suspicious deaths to determine if honour killings had taken place.
- In 2003 Sahjda Bibi was murdered in Birmingham for marrying someone who was divorced man, and a non-relative.
- In 2003 a Yorkshire teenager was murdered in Pakistan by her father for having a boyfriend that the family didn't know about.
- In 2003 Heshu Jones was stabbed 11 times and then had her throat slit by her abusive father for falling in love with a Christian.
- In 2002, Sweden, Fadime Sahindal was murdered by her father for refusing to submit to a forced marriage. She spoke out to the media about the torment and threats she was receiving from her family, and went into hiding. She made the mistake of secretly visiting her sister and mother, but her father found out and turned up, and shot her, even though her chosen boyfriend had himself died four years beforehand.
- In 2000, a twelve-year-old girl in Sweden was shot 86 times by several relatives for accepting a lift in a car of a male friend (although in a previous meeting of 60 relatives about this crime, they'd agreed death was too severe, some had disagreed).
2. Terrible Symptoms of Unfettered Male Culture
Honour killings stem from countries which observe strict monotheistic religions, or, from cultures that are still under the sway of such religions. Even if those religions do not actually endorse it, they often endorse male dominance in such a way that allows the practice of honour killing to continue. Typically, the poor girl "either has her throat cut, or she is dowsed with gasoline and set on fire, or she is shot. The jail sentences for these men, if they are prosecuted at all, are invariably short. Many [murderous men] are considered heroes in their communities1.
“Honor killing is merely one facet in that terrible kaleidoscope that is the untutored, male imagination: dowry deaths and bride burnings, female infanticide, acid attacks, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery [...] await unlucky women throughout much of the world. There is no doubt that certain beliefs are incompatible with love, and this notion of "honor" is among them. [...]
[It] persists throughout much of Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. We live in a world in which women and girls are regularly murdered by their male relatives for perceived sexual indiscretions - ranging from merely speaking to a man without permission to falling victim of rape. [...] They almost invariably occur in a Muslim context [and] the problem is clearly a product of what men in these societies believe about shame and honor, about the role of women, and about female sexuality.”
"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason" by Sam Harris (2006)1
3. Which Countries are Susceptible
#christianity_and_women #islam_and_women #patriarchy #religion_and_women
3.1. Pakistan
#gender_prejudice #gender_violence #honour_killings #islam #islam_and_women #pakistan #religion_and_women
Women live a very inequal and unsecure life in Pakistan, with too many facing violent attacks and "authorities failing to provide adequate protection or hold perpetrators accountable"6 and turning a blind-eye to matters of 'tribal traditions'7. The problems start even before birth, with demographic data indicating a widespread problem of infanticide against femalekind, leading to Pakistan having one of the world's lowest ratios of females to males8.
Substantially more than 1,000 women are murdered in honour killings each year in Pakistan6,9,10. They are murdered by their relatives for not adhering to strict conservative modes of fashion, life, love or conduct. Avoiding forced marriages is common cause for a father to murder his daughter (or get a younger brother to do it, who therefore only services a short sentence as a minor). These problems are especially bad in rural communities, where a combination of poor education, weak government reach and male-dominated strict Islam mean women have no protections.
For more, see:
3.2. India
#gender_violence #honour_killings #india #misogyny #patwa
India suffers from a steady drum-beat of honour killings in relation to marriage and female sexuality, especially in the north-west and north-eastern areas. For example, in 2016, the traditionalist and conservative Hindu Patwa sect gained infamy when they dismembered a 16-year-old for going to her boyfriend's party (she wasn't allowed to date). The Patwas are a closed community which focus on crafts such as jewellery and weaving; they practice arranged marriages and do not allow marriages to strangers, love marriages, or marriage to someone of a different caste; the horror of the conservative honour killing caused a great many in the town to protest in support of women's safety. 11
In a 2012 case, which showcases how fundamental male-organized society is to some within traditional cultures, Oghad Singh beheaded his own daughter, complaining that she had divorced the man she had been arranged to marry. He took her severed head to the police to complain that her actions was making it difficult for him to arrange marriages for his other daughters12. This poisonous way of thinking is barbaric, but cultural change is a slow process.
For more, see:
3.3. Turkey
#gender_violence #germany #honour_killings #religion_and_women #suicide #turkey
Strict Islamic families, especially from rural and poor regions, are reacting with violent barbarism against women who want to live with a less gender inequality. As the bearded men pull back, the EU is enticing Turkey forwards, with a possibility of future membership being dependent on the country developing a more consistent and positive approach to human rights, education and women's rights.13. The problem is cultural and follows Turkish communities abroad; the occasional honour killings that occur in Germany are from within Turkish communities there14.
The government has been making genuine efforts to curb violence against women, including trying to prevent honour killings. Families used to evade justice by getting a minor - a brother under 18 years old - to commit the murder; he would receive a reduced sentence because of his age, serving only a short period in prison. That loophole has been closed13. But conservative families are finding newly horrible aways around the rules, especially in areas that are "poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam"13. Over the past 20 years, an anomalous trend of 'honour suicides' has replaced direct honour killings in some cases. For example, in 2006 Derya was instructed to kill herself by her Uncle, via text message: "You have blackened our name. Kill yourself and clean our shame or we will kill you first"13. It is because she had been seeing a boy at school. Her brothers and uncles sent up to 15 messages a day with the same message of doom. She made three attempts to kill herself, before being taken in by a women's refuge, and 'abandoning the veil for tshirt and jeans', she went into hiding13. Others have been locked for days in rooms with nothing but rat poison. When they finally drink it and die, the family can say it was suicide13.
In one town alone of 250,000 residents, Batman (pronounced bot-mon), in 2001-2006, there have been 102 suicides by women (double that of men), according to the United Nations, and their investigator concluded that only some of those suicides were authentic.
For more, see:
3.4. Syria
#gender_inequality #gender_violence #honour_killings #religion_and_women #syria
Cultural problems continue to make Syria an awful place for many women.
“Syria's first comprehensive field study of violence against women concluded [in 2006] that nearly one in four married woman surveyed has been beaten. The study was ... part of a report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the status of women in Syria. [...]
Bassam al-Kadi, a rights advocate, said that the report was part of a growing openness about many forms of domestic abuse. He has recently been working on a public information campaign to try to curb the practice known as "honor killings" - the killing of female relatives who are believed to have dishonored the family [...]. "Until two years ago, discussion of honor killing was banned in the Syrian media," Mr. Kadi said.”
For more, see:
3.5. Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon
#afghanistan #egypt #iraq #islam #jordan #lebanon #pakistan #syria
“Such killings [of raped women by their relatives] are not at all uncommon in places like Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iraq, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. [... The girl] either has her throat cut, or she is dowsed with gasoline and set on fire, or she is shot. The jail sentences for these men, if they are prosecuted at all, are invariably short. Many are considered heroes in their communities.”
"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason" by Sam Harris (2006)1
“'Honour killings' for alleged sexual misconduct by women are far from being limited to mountainous, tribal regions [such as Afghanistan]: they occur in many other parts of the world, and though Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq furnish numerous examples, honour killings are far from being confined to Muslim societies.”
"Fundamentalism" by Malise Ruthven (2007)3
3.6. Europe (Historically in strict Catholic places, but now uncommon, and exclusively in immigrant communities)
#christianity #islam #spain #sweden
Historically, some places in Europe also saw similar abuse by patriarchalists:
“The culture of 'honour and shame', in which masculine honour and identity are predicated on female virtue, was until recently just as prevalent in Catholic Spain and Sicily, and the Orthodox Balkans, as it [is] in Muslim lands.”
"Fundamentalism" by Malise Ruthven (2007)3
In modern times, the types of thinking that leads to honour killings are sometimes brought into otherwise modern countries by immigrants from places where misogynistic patriarchalism is unquestioned. Bruce Bawer5 focuses on negative problems with Islam, but even he must admit that honour killings are not an Islamic creation. In modern times "the first one uncovered in Sweden was by a Palestinian Christian who murdered his daughter in 1994 for spurning an arranged marriage"4.
“There have been several cases in European countries in recent years [circa 2007] in which a Muslim woman has been murdered by her male relatives because she is considered to have dishonoured her family through a sexual relationship or even just a friendship with a man before marriage or outside marriage. [...] Most Muslims living in the West today are outspoken in their condemnation of honour killings.”
"Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenges of Islam"
Colin Chapman (2007)16