Honour Killing
“Like all social evils, unless society shuns these practices,
the police and judiciary alone cannot save women who want to break free from
arranged and abusive marriages.”
Honour killing (also called a
customary killing) can be defined as the homicide of the member of a family or
social group by other members due to the belief of the perpetrators that the
victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. This is a death sentenced by family or society members to a man
or woman for marrying against parent’s wish, having extra-marital or
pre-marital affair, marrying outside one’s caste or within same gotra etc., in
order to protect the social status and honour of the family. The dishonour
perceived in this kind of killings may be a result of behaviours as trivial as
dressing in a manner unacceptable to the family or community, or having a
non-sexual relationship that is perceived as inappropriate. The honour killing practiced
in modern history seems to have gained momentum since the partition of India in
1947. The tradition was first viewed most brutal and horrible during 1947 and
1950, when women were forcefully killed to protect the family’s honour for a
lot of forced marriages and rapes were causing women from India to marry men
from Pakistan and vice-versa.
Mostly the method of honour killing is
adopted when a girl goes against the wishes of her family and marries a guy who
does not belong to her own community. In some of these cases, both the boy and
the girl are killed either secretly by the family members and even openly
claiming that the respective boy or girl has bought disgrace and disrespect to
the family and to the society or community as a whole. The socio-political environment during this period caused women to be
made victims for humiliation among conflicting communities leading to the
humiliated families killing women of their own families. This practice
is not only prevalent in India, but is widespread
worldwide including North and South America, Africa, Turkey, Palestine,
Pakistan etc.
There are
various misconceptions regarding the practice of honour killing. The first
misconception about honour killing is that this is a practice that is limited
to the rural areas. The truth is that we cannot isolate honour killings to
rural areas only, though one has to admit that majority of the killings take
place in the rural areas. It has also been seen recently that even the
metropolitan cities like Delhi and Tamil Nadu are not safe from this crime
because some honour killings have been reported from Delhi and in Tamil Nadu
too. The second misconception regarding honour killing is that it has religious
roots. Inter-caste marriages are also one of the major causes of such crimes.
Engaging in heterosexual, sexual acts outside marriage, or even due to a
non-sexual relationship perceived as inappropriate, and engaging in homosexual
acts is the third biggest misconception.
Violence
against women takes many forms: verbal abuse and physical beatings; being
stoned or burned; disfigurement by acid; threats; false imprisonment; sexual
abuse; forced marriages, in which the female is threatened to enter a marriage
against her own will. It is clearly seen that there is no religious backing or
religious roots for this heinous crime. Women and girls are killed at a much
higher rate than men. Even if a woman commits adultery, there have to be four
male witnesses with good behaviour and reputation to validate the charge.
Furthermore only the State can carry out judicial punishments, but never an
individual vigilante.
This practice
is mostly common in uneducated families where the ancient old tradition where women
have no rights to challenge the decision taken by the family members keeping in
mind the culture, family and their so called religious values. Another cause
responsible for killings is the dispute between girls and their parents on
marriage and control, specially the marriage outside one's own caste. The
notion of marrying outside one's own caste brings dishonour to the family which
is responsible for axing their daughter, to death, by her own father or
brother. The basic cause of this social menace is the tradition of caste and
control over a women's body and the patriarchal mind set. Because of this in
most of the cases the honour killing is done by girls' family. The notion of
the father as dictator with an iron-fisted grips on the lives of his children
specially his daughters regrettably persists in many countries around the
world. And, the father believes that if his children stray,
especially in sexual matters, the father is entitled to punish them even unto death.
This barbarism carries the name Honour Killing.
In India unfortunately 'honour killing' has become common place. The Supreme Court
observed, "to kill or physically assault a young man /woman who marries
against their wishes is wholly illegal.” If someone is not happy with the
behaviour of his daughter or other person, the maximum one can do is to
cut off social relations with her/him there is nothing "honourable"
in 'honour killings.' The
government of India has formulated laws against honour killing but still this
inhuman practice exists. Such delinquents should be punished as ruthlessly as
possible and even capital punishment should be pronounced to them so that they
realize that how painful and cruel death is to any individual that they kill.
The United
Nations Population Fund estimates that approximately five thousand women are
killed each year for "dishonouring" their families. UNICEF
calculated that about two-thirds of all killings in Palestinian territories are
honour-killings.
The leniency
towards honour-killings is in practice in Arab countries also. In
the territories ruled by Palestinians, under Article 340, men are
completely exempted from liability for honour-killing. This article 340 of
the Penal Code of Jordan, provides for an exemption from penalty if a man kills
his wife or female relative after finding her “committing adultery with
another.” It provides for a reduction in penalty if a man kills his
wife or female relative after finding her “with another in an unlawful bed.” In
another section, a "lesser penalty" is imposed. Similarly,
Article 548 of the Penal Code of Syria also provides an exemption from penalty
if a man kills or injures his wife or female after finding her committing
adultery or other “illegitimate sexual acts with another.” The law
also provides for a reduction in penalty for a man who kills or injures his
female relative after catching her in a “suspicious state with another.” Even
more, according to the Iran Penal Code, Article 630, a husband is allowed to
murder his wife without penalty if he suspects her of adultery. In some
countries such as Jordan, Morocco and Syria, “honour crimes” are also legally
sanctioned and defence of the family honour is considered a mitigating factor.
The way in
which legislation in various countries awards lesser punishment in cases where
the victim is considered to have “provoked” the crime by violating cultural
norms is also of concern. In many countries, there are few available resources
to protect women and victims are placed in state custodial or correctional
institutions for example in Jordan, for example, there is no women’s
shelter. There are only state-run women’s prisons where women are
incarcerated for their own safety - to be protected from their own
families. Ironically, their release can only be secured by a male
relative.
Voices have also been raised to reign in
the 'khap panchayats', self-elected village councils comprising male village
elders who perpetuate values that, in turn, covertly endorse these killings in
the name of saving the 'family's honour'. Like the Taliban in Pakistan and
Afghanistan, the khaps have attained notoriety by issuing diktats on dress code
for women and demanding a ban on the use of cell phones by young girls and
women. In India recently, a group of khap panchayats filed a document before
the country’s highest court saying they had been wrongly charged for
encouraging honour killings in rural India. Earlier, a women’s rights group,
Shakti Vahini, had petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the government
to be more proactive when ‘honour killings’ are carried out. They blamed the
khap panchayats for endorsing patriarchy, which reinforced the subjugation of
women in society and the resultant ‘honour killings’.
Is the society more important than
your children? When questioned all will say that children are most important,
but in such cases, the reality is completely different. These people who kill
their children are actually murderous hooligans who are only concerned about
their sham status and position in the society and nothing else. Such people
should be termed as criminals as they are far more dangerous than the
terrorists. Terrorists kill people who are unknown to them while these fanatics
are a part of that heartless group who can kill anyone for a baseless reason
and name it as honour killing.
As a human being each and every
individual has the right to live his or her own life according to their own
wishes. After attaining the age of adulthood by both, the girl and the boy
respectively, the family has no right to force them into marriage or any other
act if they are unwilling to do so. If an individual that he or she wants to
marry according to their wishes, their wishes feels should be accepted as well
as appreciated in the society. In fact, parents only wish to see their children
happy because every parent’s contentment lies in the happiness of their
child. But for a number of families,
their status and position in the society is far more important that they do not
even mind killing or sacrificing their own blood just to maintain their farce
pride and prestige.
What can we
do to prevent such a thing from happening? Firstly, the mentality of the people
has to change which means that the mentality of the parents has to change and
they should accept their children’s wishes regarding in the choice of their
life. We should broaden up our minds and come out of Casteism, Gotra etc. Secondly, we need to have extremely strict laws to tackle
such kinds of killings as this is a crime which cannot be pardoned for humans
do not have the right to give death sentences of innocent fellow humans.
The efforts
taken by some very active women's organizations and international units
attempting to curb abuse of and violence against women to bring awareness to
the cultural, and sometimes religious, norms, laws, and practices that have
created and preserve these conditions are too small. The way this violence is
prevalent in many countries in the world, strong and stringent laws should be
enforced to curb such monstrous crimes because at the base of this violence is
the farce concept of honour, which women supposedly embody, because of their
lack of education and empowerment as women affected by this concept have rarely
been able to challenge the nature and consequences of it. What is needed is a
large-scale attack by national governments and international organizations.
We all
should strictly stand against the social ails that act as a portico to the
scalp roots of the country. Our mission should be to target the victims and
provide aid and support in whatever way possible. Contributing for a social and
ethical cause.
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To be cont.….3. Sexual abuse, Rape, Work harassment &
Tools for black mailing
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