What's behind it is the issue of fertility, or reproductive power. Footnote Historically, in some Arab countries under Ottoman rule, a killer would "sprinkle his victim's blood on his clothes and parade through the streets displaying the bloody murder weapon… to increase his honour," thereby attracting community respect rather than condemnation for taking a life. It is not necessary that the victim actually transgress any behavioural norms, as an Amnesty International statement notes:.
The mere perception that a woman has contravened the code of sexual behavior damages honor. The regime of honor is unforgiving: women on whom suspicion has fallen are not given an opportunity to defend themselves, and family members have no socially acceptable alternative but to remove the stain on their honor by attacking the woman.
This can be explained on the basis of the feudal and cultural mind-sets. In the perpetrators' faulty vision, "It is better to eliminate the suspect before the matter blows out of proportion and the talk spreads to the community," even where the suspicion is groundless. The notions of honour and shame and their use as justification for violence and killing is not unique to any one culture or religion. Footnote 45 Indeed, honour and honour-based violence are reflected in historical events in many countries, and in many works of literature.
For instance, duelling was a key practice through which claims of masculine honour were made, maintained and understood in Western societies. Footnote 46 In France, Le Cid told the story of a man insulted by a slap across the face, who asked his son to defend his honour in a duel. In Canada, duelling continued into the late s. In British literature, Shakespeare's Desdemona was killed over allegations of infidelity, and Romeo and Juliet tracked an ancient family feud over honour.
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table centred on notions of honour. The premise of the Three Musketeers was the King's guards avenging the betrayal of the king by Cardinal Richelieu. Similar notions can be traced in Latin American societies. In Brazil and parts of Latin America, machismo is often described as a code of honour. In the early times of Peru, the laws of the Incas permitted husbands to starve their wives to death as punishment for committing an adulterous act.
Aztec laws resulted in death by stoning or strangulation for female adultery during the early times of Mexico. Several great wars started over honour. Likely the clearest of these was the Trojan War, which began over the honour of Helen. Her father required that all her suitors defend his choice for her marriage, thereby setting all of Greece against Troy. In Ancient Roman times, the senior male within a household retained the right to kill a related woman if she was engaged in pre-marital or extra-marital relations.
Footnote 49 According to Blackstone, the Roman law justified homicide "when committed in defence of the chastity either of oneself or relations". Honour-based violence Footnote 51 can be between men only, and sometimes involves women as collaborators. However, it appears to be perpetrated almost exclusively by men against women and children whom they consider to "belong" to them.
It generally appears in the following sets of circumstances:. Honour is expressed in many other terms, including "vengeance," "avenging," "saving face," etc. Wednesday's horrific death of a year-old Pakistani girl who was burned alive allegedly by her mother for eloping with a man has shed renewed light on the dark world of honor killings. Here are five things to know about honor killings, drawn from a U. Department of Justice-sponsored study conducted in Honor killings are a form of extreme punishment exacted to regain family honor in the wake of what is considered a sexual crime, such as adultery or other sexual impropriety and homosexuality.
The Justice study identified four types of honor violence: forced marriage, honor-based domestic violence, female genital mutilation and honor killings. Those responsible for committing the killings can be parents, husbands, siblings or extended family members. In a society where most marriages are arranged by fathers and money is often exchanged, a woman's desire to choose her own husband—or to seek a divorce—can be viewed as a major act of defiance that damages the honor of the man who negotiated the deal.
Even victims of rape are vulnerable. In a widely reported case in March of , a year-old mentally retarded girl who was raped in the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan was turned over to her tribe's judicial council.
Even though the crime was reported to the police and the perpetrator was arrested, the Pathan tribesmen decided that she had brought shame to her tribe and she was killed in front of a tribal gathering. The teenage brothers of victims are frequently directed to commit the murder because, as minors, they would be subject to considerably lighter sentencing if there is legal action.
Typically, they would serve only three months to a year. Officials often claim that nothing can be done to halt the practice because the concept of women's rights is not culturally relevant to deeply patriarchal societies. The story of Samia Imran is one of the most widely cited cases used to illustrate the vulnerability of women in a culture that turns a blind eye to such practices. The case's high profile no doubt arises from the fact that the murder took place in broad daylight, was abetted by the victim's mother, who was a doctor, and occurred in the office of Asma Jahangir, a prominent Pakistani lawyer and the UN reporter on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions.
In April Imran, a year-old married woman seeking a divorce from her violent husband after 10 years of marriage, reluctantly agreed to meet her mother in a lawyers' office in Lahore, Pakistan.
Imran's family opposed the divorce and considered her seeking a divorce to be shaming to the family's honor. Her mother arrived at the lawyer's office with a male companion, who immediately shot and killed Imran. Imran's father, who was president of the Chamber of Commerce in Peshawar, filed a complaint with the police accusing the lawyers of the abduction and murder of Imran.
The local clergy issued fatwas religious rulings against both women and money was promised to anyone who killed them. The Peshawar High Court eventually threw out the father's suit. No one was ever arrested for Imran's death. Imran's case received a great deal of publicity, but frequently honor killings are virtually ignored by community members.
Women accused by family members of bringing dishonor to their families are rarely given the opportunity to prove their innocence. In many countries where the practice is condoned or at least ignored, there are few shelters and very little legal protection. Violence against women is being tackled at the international level as a human rights issue.
But the politics of women's rights can be complex. Last year the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions was criticized by a coalition of member countries for including honor killings in her report, and a resolution condemning honor killings failed to pass. Amnesty International is preparing to launch a worldwide campaign to halt violence against women in Countries that don't recognize domestic violence as a crime at all need to bring their penal codes up to international standards, she said, adding that increased public awareness and greater education about human rights would also help.
In a National Geographic documentary Michael Davie investigated honor killings in Pakistan, where it is estimated that every day at least three women—including victims of rape—are victims of the practice. The case of one of the victims Davie examined is heartbreaking but also hopeful. Zahida Perveen, a year-old mother of three, was brutally disfigured and underwent extensive facial reconstruction in the United States.
She is one of the only survivors in Pakistan to successfully prosecute the attacker—her husband.
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