Statistics released by the UN in 2000 revealed that approximately 5,000 “honour killings” took place annually world-wide of which around 1,000, the highest number of honour crimes, were recorded in Pakistan alone. It’s difficult to get the exact numbers on this phenomenon as incidents frequently go unreported and the perpetrators go unpunished because the concept of `honour’ gets justified by the community. Women in many countries get killed for no other reason than that they are just women.

Honour killings happen in Bangladesh, UK, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda. Recall, a few years ago, a Pakistani labourer killed his eldest daughter for marrying against his wishes. He then killed his three other innocent daughters aged 12, 8 and 4, fearing that they too might follow in the footsteps of their elder sister. He did this ostensibly to save the family honour which he believed had been restored by killing his four daughters.

A teenaged Jordanian girl was stoned to death by her brother for simply walking toward a house where young boys lived alone. An Egyptian who first killed his unmarried pregnant daughter and then cut her corpse in to pieces confessed, “Shame kept following me, people were making jokes and mocking me. I couldn’t bear it and decided to put an end to this shame.”

Again, a Palestinian after hanging his sister said: “I did not kill her, but rather helped her to commit suicide to carry out the death penalty she sentenced herself to. I did it to wash with her blood the family honour…the society taught us from childhood that blood is the only solution to wash the honour.” Another of his compatriots who murdered his sister made this excuse, “My only motive to kill her was to get rid of what people were saying. They were blaming me that I was encouraging her to fornicate… But I let her choose the way I would get rid of her: slitting her throat or poisoning her. She chose the poison”

In India too, it is happening in some of our north Indian States with distressing regularity particularly in certain communities. According to CPM Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat, about 10 per cent of murders in Haryana and Punjab are attributable to `honour killings’.

In 2002-3, UP’s Muzaffarnagar district alone witnessed more than 23 honour killings. Look at the travesty: the killer, the victim, the family and the society were all so conditioned to accept an honour killing as inevitable. The victim too is resigned that she would have to die for the sake of her family’s honour and accepts the death almost voluntarily. Ironically, Sati too was supposed to be a voluntary act.

A young couple was recently killed to uphold the woman’s family honour in Haryana’s Karnal district. The reason: the young woman, a divorcee, was living with her lover belonging to the same ‘gotra’ (clan) which was unacceptable to her family and the society. Not only that. Their half-stripped bodies were laid out on the dirt-dump outside for all to see.

“From the society’s point of view, this is a very good thing. The blot has been removed” said a hooka-smoking senior citizen. Almost the entire village echoed the same sentiments. An old woman however whispered: “Aaurat ke liye, maika bhi paraya, sasural bhi parya, us ke liye hai kya.” (A woman is stranger in her parent’s home and also in her in-law’s home; what is there for her).

The victim’s mother admitted, “We did it because she deserved it. We have managed to redeem our honour”. Moreover, the father without the slightest regret or remorse reportedly confessed to committing the murders. A neighbour added: “They have been killed to set an example, so that no one repeats the same mistake”.

According to the customs followed by certain deeply traditional and conservative communities, people who share the same ‘gotra’ are considered to have descended from the same ancestors from the Vedic age. It is thus taboo for a man and woman of the same village to marry.

Communities who traditionally practice clan, village, and regional exogamy ensure their women’s purity through their enforced seclusion. The menfolk’s need of women is only to work in the house and fields, bring up male children, to collect fodder, take care of the cattle and thrashing, winnowing, and processing cow dung into fuel cakes. Daughters are considered a social and economic burden and a risk to family honour.

Another new phenomenon is honour suicide. Wherein parental and social pressure play a major role in driving the women to commit `honour suicides’ to spare their family’s from murder charge. This is a new invention of male members of various communities where the sex ratio is 861 females to 1000 males. The reason for this skewed sex ratio is the generalized disinclination for daughters. Resulting in hundreds of honour killings, honour suicides and female infanticides cases occurring in many States in India.

Why do all family members approve or join in honour killings? The parents of the girl who brings dishonour to the family think that no one would give a daughter to their sons and no one would marry their other daughters leading to the family becoming an outcast, the object of ridicule and gossip in the community. The victim’s brothers and sisters join in the honour killing because they do not want to jeopardize their own prospect in the marriage market.

Further, women are usually targeted for honour killing for either refusing an arranged marriage or for seeking a divorce from an abusive husband. Shockingly, a woman forfeits her right to life if she is a rape victim or is caught even speaking to an unrelated man and who is rumored to have lost her virginity. Besides, a woman who is in an extra-marital relationship or had an affair is a source of shame and she too must forgo the right to live. The regime of honour is unforgiving. Women on whom suspicion has fallen are not given an opportunity to defend themselves.

The tragedy of it all is that honour killings seem to be getting social acceptability. This is dangerous. Abuses against women are unrelenting, systematic, and widely endured, if not openly condoned. There is no gainsaying, that the arrogant self-righteous egoistical men will continue to murder their daughters and sisters blighting the society with their repulsive and psychotic dramatization and think it is their moral responsibility to do so, unless the Government, judiciary and public do not come forward to end this menace which is worse than ’sati.’

What is the National Commission for Women (NCW) and various human rights organizations doing? Every honour killing case should be taken up suo moto by the NCW. Immediate action is needed to end this brutal practice.

In sum, it is a shame if this practice is tolerated in a sovereign, democratic and secular India with a progressive Constitution and where Raja Rammohan Roy had abolished ’sati.’ Let politicians and social reformers come forward to tell the men that there is no honour in killing their daughters and sisters. Importantly, it is their retrogressive and repulsive act that brings more shame on their family and community than ‘honour killings.’ Anyone guilty of involvement is a cold-blooded murderer and not a knight in shining armor.

Around 200 people fall prey to honor killings each year in Turkey and the figure is increasing, according to the author of a recent report on the subject.

Professor Hasan Tahsin Fendoğlu, head of the Prime Ministry’s Human Rights Directorate, on Thursday released a report titled “Honor Killings between 2003 and 2007″ during a meeting held at İstanbul’s Swissôtel.

“Honor killings in our country are on the rise. This increase is not at dramatic levels, but is still thought-provoking,” he said. According to the report, 220 people in different regions of Turkey in 2007 were victims of honor killings, while this figure was 150 in 2003 and 216 in 2006. The total number of honor killings in the last five years exceeded 1,000.

“Though Turkey has recently taken significant steps in the fight against honor killings, the number of victims continues to rise. The main reason behind such killings is our society’s patriarchal structure,” said Fendoğlu.

He also noted that honor killings are committed mainly in big cities, which see a high level of intercity migration. “More than half of honor killings committed in the last five years all across Turkey were committed in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Diyarbakır and Antalya. İstanbul takes the lead among these cities with 167 killings. Another striking fact about İstanbul is that the number of honor killings committed in this city almost doubled in 2007. While 27 people were murdered in honor killings in 2006 in İstanbul, this figure rose to 53 in 2007,” stated Fendoğlu.

Fendoğlu also emphasized that the victims and perpetrators of honor killings are generally uneducated. “Contrary to general belief, not all honor killing victims are females. Sometimes males are also the target in such killings. Nine percent of honor killings are perpetrated by children,” he said.

He noted that imposing tougher penalties on perpetrators of honor killings has a deterrent effect on such crimes. “We believe an increase in the number of women’s shelters will help reduce violence against women,” Fendoğlu remarked.Today’s Zaman

A 22-year-old man was brutally beaten to death early on Tuesday by his girlfriend’s father and brother in yet another horrific incident of honour killing in Punjab.

The girl’s father Gurpal Singh and brother Jasdeep have been charged with the murder of Paramjit, a plumber from Pachharian village, who had apparently come to meet the girl at her house in Pajarian village near Jalandhar. While Gurpal has been arrested, Jasdeep is absconding, police said.

Police sources said Paramjit had met the girl a while back when he was did some plumbing work at her house. He had gone to meet her at around midnight on Monday and was discovered by the father at 2.00am.

Police sources said Gurpal and Jasdeep repeatedly attacked Paramjit with a baton and a hammer, injuring him grievously.

The family then called up Hakam Singh, the sarpanch of Paramjit’s village, to tell the latter that he had sneaked into their house for theft.

Hakam Singh then informed Paramjit’s family, who reached Gurpal’s house in the wee hours while he was still conscious.

Within minutes of his parents reaching the house, he collapsed and died. Nakodar DSP Kulwinder Singh Thiaara said a case of murder had been registered against the father-son duo based on the statement of Paramjit’s father Sohan Singh.

Confirming that illicit relations between the man and the girl led to the murder, he said according to Paramjit’s family, he had left home on Monday and did not return and they found out where he was after the girl’s family called the sarpanch.

Times of India 

Jeta Rathod was enraged because his 19-yr-old daughter had married a boy from a lower caste

Express India

HOUSTON, TX - An India professor-turned-hotelier charged with ordering the contract killing of his African-American daughter-in-law because she was not an Indian faces the death penalty.

India Journal

The sight of children caring for other children, sometimes just a few years younger than themselves, is not uncommon across Pakistan. Most often, the toddlers or babies lugged around by pre-teen or teenage girls as they go about their chores are younger siblings.

IRIN

 KABUL, 16 June 2008 (IRIN) - Ten-year-old Sweeta still remembers the most painful moments of her life when a bulky 35-year-old man raped her in his office in the town of Sheberghan, Jowzjan Province, in northern Afghanistan.

At around 10am on 31 January 2008 a vehicle with the markings and number plate of the Afghan National Army (ANA) stopped near a water-point where Sweeta was filling her buckets, according to the Afghanistan Human Right Organisation (AHRO).

“The three men in the car grabbed her and drove to an army barracks where the commander raped her in his office,” said Lal Gul Lal, chairman of AHRO, who has provided legal support to the victim’s family.

The child was semi-conscious when the rapist dropped her home with some gifts, lying to her elder sister that she was hit by a car and was experiencing abdominal bleeding.

“She [Sweeta] was threatened that if she told anyone about the incident they would kill her parents,” Lal told IRIN in Kabul.

But it soon became clear that the girl had been raped, and this was later confirmed by local doctors.

For a whole week after the incident Sweeta’s father knocked on various government doors, trying to obtain justice, but only received verbal sympathy.

The situation changed when he approached AHRO and local and national media got wind of the story. Despite strong opposition from some influential figures, the rapist was arrested and brought to court in Kabul.

“Many cases are unreported”

Sweeta’s is not an isolated case: Some children are exploited for sexual purposes but their misery is rarely talked about in public.

“Many cases are unreported,” said Hangama Anwary, a commissioner for the rights of children with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

At least 31 cases of child sexual abuse were registered by the AIHRC in 2007. So far this year only four cases have been reported, though it is estimated by the AIHRC and other human rights organisations, that there are hundreds of cases every year.

“Some parents think by reporting sex offences against their children they will only bring dishonour on their families,” Anwary said.

On 19 September 2007 seven young men gang-raped and tortured a 13-year-old girl in the northern province of Balkh, according to the two rights watchdogs, the AHRO and the AIHRC.

“A government official released all the accused rapists two days after they were apprehended, saying there was a lack of evidence,” said Lal of AHRO.

“The offenders are still at large and the victim is roaming around various government departments with her petition for justice,” he added.

According to Lal, many of those involved in sex offences are able to escape justice due to the weak rule of law and corruption among judges and government officials, and/or have the support of powerful militia leaders.

Link with human trafficking

However, some measures to tackle sexual offences against children have been taken: On 6 June a court in Takhar Province reportedly sentenced to death a man accused of raping and strangling to death a seven-year-old girl.

In early May, judges in Kandahar Province gave the death penalty to a man who reportedly raped and buried a six-year-old girl.

“Afghanistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude,” found the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report of the US Department of State.

The report said Afghan children were trafficked internally and to regional countries for “commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage to settle debts or disputes, forced begging, debt bondage [and] service as child soldiers”.

The AIHRC also said there were strong linkages between human trafficking and child sexual abuse. However, a major obstacle in tackling child trafficking is the lack of specific legal and judicial tools.

“Human trafficking has not been defined in our legal system so far,” the AIHRC’s Hangama Anawary told IRIN. “We also do not have legal clarity on issues related to child sexual abuse.”

Rights watchdogs have repeatedly called on the Afghan government to immediately enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking law and increase law enforcement efforts against human trafficking, particularly the trafficking of children.

No victim support

Although the man who raped Sweeta in Sheberghan has been sentenced to 15 years by a court in Kabul, her post-trauma suffering has not diminished - neither the government nor the rapist have paid any financial compensation to ease the victim family’s difficulties, and Sweeta has not received any rehabilitative and/or mental support to help her return to a normal life.

“The government does not run a formal victim support fund to assist victims like Sweeta,” Lal Gul Lal said.

Afghanistan’s legal system envisions individual compensatory mechanisms in which only offenders - not the government - must pay financial compensation to victims.
IRIN 

Yet another case of honour killing of an unmarried girl  in border village Naushera Dhalla has come to light where a family allegedly killed their young daughter (22) and performed her last rites clandestinely.

Police said that this incident occurred last night. When incident was brought in the notice of police, Assistant Sub Inspector Dilbag Singh along with his two subordinates rushed on the sport and tried to stop the cremation but could not do so.

Sources said that family of the girl with the help of villagers detained the police party for two hours untill body reduced to ash. Even the mobile phone of police party was also snatched.

Sources said that deceased girl was allegedly having an affair with the boy of nearby village and when family came to know about it that let to the murder of the girl by her family members.

Police today registered the criminal case of murder and destroying evidence after murder under section of 302 and 201 of IPC against the father, brother and relatives of the girl.

Punjab Newsline

An Egyptian farmer who suspected his 16-year-old daughter was having an affair hanged her and then beheaded her body in the southern province of Bani Soueif, it was reported Sunday. The local daily Al-Akhbar said Abdel-Samad, 46, turned himself to the police after the killing. It said a police investigation showed the father suspected his daughter of having an affair.So-called honour killings are not unusual in Egypt and other countries of the Middle East, where families murder female members for having brought “shame” on their name.

Such killings often involve a female member refusing an arranged marriage or having a relationship that the family considers to be inappropriate.

Thaindian

A person who shot dead eight worshipers and injured 12 others outside a mosque in Amran province, 60 km (40 miles) north of the capital Sana’a, last week told a court on Sunday that he avenged his honor.

“The attacker said that he intended to kill a man he had an illicit affair with his sister,” media reports said.

The prosecution asked the court to impose the maximum punishment on the attacker, which is death sentence.

“When asked about the motives behind the crime Abdullah Saleh Zeid al-Qohali, 23, told the court that a fellow man named Belal Qasem al-Qohali got his sister pregnant three times,” media sources said.

Security authorities said that the motive behind the shooting was criminal and that the attacker had land dispute with a fellow clansman and that he was mentally unstable.

The court set June 11 for coming hearing.

Many local journalists and correspondents of foreign news agencies attended today’s hearing.

In May 2, 2008, a booby-trapped motorcycle killed 16 worshipers and wounded 45 others while they were filing out of a mosque in a village in Sa’ada province.

Yemen Online