MishpishHonor Killings considered OK amongst peers
February 5th 2008 00:07
According to the BBC, a poll conducted last September said that One in 10 young British Asians believes so-called honour killings can be justified. Of 500 Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims questioned, a 10th said they would condone the murder of someone who disrespected their family's honour.
Reports submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights show that honor killings have occurred in Bangladesh, Great Britain, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.
In India, for example, more than 5,000 brides die annually because their dowries are considered insufficient, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Crimes of passion, which are treated extremely leniently in Latin America, are the same thing with a different name, some rights advocates say.
"In countries where Islam is practiced, they're called honor killings, but dowry deaths and so-called crimes of passion have a similar dynamic in that the women are killed by male family members and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable," said Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. (National Geographic, Feb 2002)
Many cases are not reported, as they are often thought to be suicides or girls are simply reported missing. For this reason the true number of honor killings is thought to be much higer than reported. Cases have occured in countries such as the US, Canada and Australia as well.
Honor killings are also occuring in western countries when young women (mostly from muslim families) develop releationships with non-muslims. But this isn't always the story. In one recent case, two men were jailed for life for murdering their relative after she fell in love with an asylum seeker.
Greengrocer Azhar Nazir, 30, and his cousin Imran Mohammed, 17, stabbed Nazir's sister Samaira 18 times at the family home in Southall (UK) in April 2005.
The 25-year-old recruitment consultant was killed after she asked to marry an Afghan man - instead of marrying someone in the Pakistani family circle.
Banaz Mahmood, a 20 year old Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man. It's believed she was murdered because she brought shame to her family when she left her Iraqi Kurd husbance she had been forced to marry at 17, and falling in love with Rahmat Suleimani, an Iranian Kurd.
Reports submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights show that honor killings have occurred in Bangladesh, Great Britain, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.
In India, for example, more than 5,000 brides die annually because their dowries are considered insufficient, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Crimes of passion, which are treated extremely leniently in Latin America, are the same thing with a different name, some rights advocates say.
"In countries where Islam is practiced, they're called honor killings, but dowry deaths and so-called crimes of passion have a similar dynamic in that the women are killed by male family members and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable," said Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. (National Geographic, Feb 2002)
Many cases are not reported, as they are often thought to be suicides or girls are simply reported missing. For this reason the true number of honor killings is thought to be much higer than reported. Cases have occured in countries such as the US, Canada and Australia as well.
Honor killings are also occuring in western countries when young women (mostly from muslim families) develop releationships with non-muslims. But this isn't always the story. In one recent case, two men were jailed for life for murdering their relative after she fell in love with an asylum seeker.
Greengrocer Azhar Nazir, 30, and his cousin Imran Mohammed, 17, stabbed Nazir's sister Samaira 18 times at the family home in Southall (UK) in April 2005.
The 25-year-old recruitment consultant was killed after she asked to marry an Afghan man - instead of marrying someone in the Pakistani family circle.
Banaz Mahmood, a 20 year old Kurdish woman was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man. It's believed she was murdered because she brought shame to her family when she left her Iraqi Kurd husbance she had been forced to marry at 17, and falling in love with Rahmat Suleimani, an Iranian Kurd.
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