This is why I attack multiculturalism. It is one of many reasons and I could give you a thousand others. Please go to stophonorkillings.com for a issue that is of concern to Pakistanis and is part of the culture of fear in our communities.Honor Killings is the Patriarchy at its most insane and brutal! I am loathe to use the word ‘honor killing’, sharaaf, where’s the sharaaf in this? I think it should be changed to ’shame killings’.
Before I even post I can hear Muslim men shouting-”but this isn’t Islam, blah blah blah”. It never is though, is it? And is Islam trying to stamp it out, which it could, presumably, if it wished?
Banaz Mahmoud Babakir Agha, a 20-year-old woman of Kurdish origin, living with her family in Mitcham, south London, was killed on 23 January 2006. Since then the culprits have been brought to justice and sentenced. The nature of the crime is too graphic to discuss. At sentencing, it emerged that Banaz had pleaded for assistance from the Brtish police in the run up to her slaying. Yet this is part of a growing problem in the UK as the state has historically turned a deaf ear to gender intimidation.
Rukhsana Naz was strangled by her mother and brother for having an extra-marital affair. In October 2002, another young Kurdish girl, Heshu Yunes was murdered by her father because she had a boyfriend. In March 2003 Sajadha Bibi, a 21 year old Pakistani woman was killed on her wedding day by her cousins; her family held the tradition of arranged marriage with the first cousin. Arash Qorbani–Zarin was stabbed to death by his girlfriend’s family on November 2004; also in 2004, Anita Gindha was strangled to death in front of her infant son. The death-toll rises year on year.
“Honour killings” are an extreme and brutal violation of human rights, and a crime against humanity. In communities where honour killings are implemented, that most basic of human rights, the right to life is entirely disregarded and cultural, religious and nationalist values are judged far more important than women’s lives. Codes of ‘moral’ behaviour are instilled by the state, religion, and nationalist organizations have become regarded as community traditions through long practice. A woman is expected to be modest, pure and obedient; she is expected to be a virgin at marriage. Women and girls have been killed for very trivial reasons, such as for looking out of the window, or laughing in public; many have paid with their lives for falling in love or loving someone forbidden to them, for seeking divorce, for escaping marital violence and many other things which are believed to bring shame and dishonour to their families. Honor killings do not exist in a vaccum, religious norms have made them possible where the woman is a sexual object who must be controlled and whose sexuality can only be a source of SHAME unless it is ruthlessly muzzled. Men of course, the more sexually active and promiscious they are- the better, this is a source of pride.Interesting contradiction, yet a deadly one too.
These inhumane practices are maintained and implemented by the state laws in the abroad and by religious and nationalist cultures in Europe. Every year, thousands of women, girls, and a minority of men are murdered around the world by male and occasionally even female family members aping male values in so-called ‘honour’ killings. In societies dominated by patriarchal and religious values, where a woman’s honour is regarded as a family’s only measurable commodity, male family members and elder women gather to vote on the death of a woman in a kind of loya jirga of death. They also decide who will carry out the killing. In many countries around the world, the murderers walk almost free, no witnesses will speak out, and no one ever asks about the missing person although everyone aware of what happened. In Pakistan, our country, honor killings are common, it’s just we expect a little better from the UK, fools that we are.
- The killing of Banaz and others who fall victim of “honour killings” shows that this barbaric phenomenon is a very real problem in British society. Many more young lives are at the risk of being ended by “honour killings”; many more young women live lives circumscribed by fear. ICAHK urge the British government, police, health workers, schools and colleges, all local authorities, human and women’s rights organizations to join with all people who feel pain in their hearts from the murders of Banaz Agha and so many others, to stand up against these brutal, horrific crimes. Banaz went to the police 4 TIMES to get help and protection. She knew she was on a hit list and she knew time was running out. As the preparations for the murder were underway, Banaz even provided the names of the relatives in the conspiracy. And the attitude of the police? I can summarize it simply as, “You’re a Muslim, some kind of Paki, so why don’t you go home, wear your hijab, cos your dad deals with all your stuff, not us and get out our lovely police station”. Well her family did deal with her, they murdered her, brutally.
Honour killing is a crime and must stop.
What should be done to stop the so called honour killings?
- Effective legislation is needed to punish all forms of crimes committed in the name of honour
- Ensure that all reports of violence and abuse to police and other organizations are taken seriously and that action is taken
- Ensure that crimes of honour are prosecuted and investigated sensitively
- The perpetrator must be charged impartially as a British citizen before the LAW
- NO redaction of charges should be made in the name of “culture”
- Educating and raising awareness within communities about equal rights of women and men and human rights
- Training for Service providers
- Ensure that service provider have received appropriate recourses for supporting victims of honour
- Asylum applications based on fear of “honour killings” should be considered favourably by the Home office.
UPDATE: On 2nd April 2008 the Police Complaints Authority Admitted that they let Banaz Down
Hi, having just read a brilliant article over at shrinkwrapped about the psycho sexual problems of the Muslim male mind, I thought I would share this treasure of a comment. Here it is, I deleted the dozens of others in similar vain.
