Women Everywhere Losing Their Lives to Honor Killings

American women sometimes forget just how good we have it in this country. While everything is far from perfect, in the long run, our lives really are a "bowl of cherries;" rosy red and pretty darn sweet. Sure we still have some steps to take on the equal pay issue and sometimes we get left behind in the promotion department, but it could be a whole lot worse. If you doubt that, then just keep reading.

I continue to be amazed by the number of people - - women in particular - - who do not know about the practice called "honor killing." This questionable ancient tradition continues to be practiced even today. Although such killings have taken place all over the world, they are more common in Middle Eastern countries. According to Marsha Freeman, director of International Women's Rights Action Watch, "most honor killings occur in countries where the concept of women as a vessel of the family reputation predominates."

The precise number of women murdered in the name of honor may never truly be known. Such killings often go unreported; particularly when it is supposedly justified as a means of saving family honor. However, there are few statistics available that more than stress the horror of this habitual practice. For example, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has reported that more than 5,000 brides die each year in India because "their dowries are considered insufficient." The practice of dowry death is considered normal for those (women) who dare to insult their potential husband with puny wedding gifts.

Since there is nothing in the Koran that seems to sanction honor killings, it is believed that the practice relates more to the concept of women as property than from any particular religious teaching. Oddly enough, these permissible murders actually cut across a lot of different cultures and religions. In Latin America they refer to the practice as a "crime of passion." In other places they called them "rage induced killing." However, all of these acts are basically the same.

Perhaps the most puzzling - - and disgusting - - part of the honor killing practice is the participants involved. Women murdered in the name of honor are actually slaughtered by male members of their own immediate family, often with the approval and complicity of their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and other women in the family. Furthermore, oftentimes the community not only condones the act, but also actually sanctions the action. Charges are seldom filed and, even when they are, they are almost always dropped as being justifiable.

In many cases teenage male members of the family are used to commit the murders. This is a safety valve in case any legal charges should be brought against the family. As minors, the boys would receive a much lighter term - - should one be handed down. The most they would serve would be about three months to a year.

This easily matches with the idea that women are the property of the male members of their own family. Sometimes the whole idea is a double-edged sword. For example, in a recent honor killing case in Pakistan, a young teenage girl fell victim to incest. Her much older brothers raped her. After suffering the pain and humiliation of that act, she was ordered put to death by her own father. He claimed that the girl was the one responsible because she had tempted her brothers into committing the rape. He claimed there was no other action acceptable after she had "besmirched" the honor of her family.

The father who had been sexually molesting her for years killed another young girl. The seventeen-year-old girl, unable to further stand the humiliation, had tried to escape by running away. When she was caught and returned to her home, her father shot her for daring to disobey him and, thereby, damaging his honor.

In an even more horrific case, a man raped a four-year-old Palestinian girl in his twenties. Rather than seeking help for their daughter's broken body, mind, and spirit her family left her on the street to bleed to death for sullying their honor.

Honor killings occur for any number of reasons, but here are some of the most common:

1. Flirting,
2. Pre-marital sex,
3. Refusing an arranged marriage,
4. Refusing conjugal sex,
5. Extramarital sex,
6. Rape, inadequate dowry, and
7. Seeking divorce.

However, simple acts such as just talking to another man, failing to wash clothes properly or to serve dinner on time can also validate reasons for these types of murder. Honor killings can virtually be used for any act that the head of the family considers to be a matter of impugning his and/or his family's honor.

If such reasons seem to be a stretch, Amnesty International has reported a number of honor killings that certainly have fallen into that category. In one such case a husband killed his wife after he had a dream that she would betray him. In truth, the "dream" action never even happened. In another case a young woman had her throat slit after someone dedicated a love ballad to her on the radio. The woman in question had no idea why the dedication was made or who, in fact, made it.

Arabs, as early as 622 AD, have buried infant daughters to avoid the possibility of them bringing any kind of shame to the family. According to a recent National Geographic article and documentary, this practice has continued through the centuries and still occurs today among some Bedouin tribes.

UNICEF estimates that thousands of women die each year as a result of honor killings. Some are called accidents. Others are labeled suicides. Still others are pointed to as mere family disputes. Most are ignored and certainly not prosecuted. One unusual case was reported where a woman was beaten, burned, strangled, shot, and ultimately stabbed to death. Her death was ultimately ruled a suicide in spite of the multiple wounds.

In other cases reported by UNICEF, women "are killed and buried in unmarked graves; their very existence is removed from community and clan records."

In Palestine - - the government that so many liberal politicians would have the U.S. support over Israel - - almost 100 percent of the murders of Palestinian women is at the hands of an honor killing. Additionally, over 75 percent of the Palestinian women, who are routinely subjected to hymen exams, were still killed by their families even after tests proved the women were still virgins.

As if the killings themselves aren't bad enough, honor suicides also appear to show little decrease in numbers. These so-called suicides generally occur when women are ordered to kill themselves so that their family members could not possibly be charged in their deaths. Strangely enough, these women often go willingly to slaughter because they believe themselves to be ruined by scandal.

In India, the widow-burning is considered to be a form of honor suicide, whereby the deceased man's widow jumps into her husband's funeral pyre to show her devotion to her husband and to preserve her family honor.

To better bring the practice of honor killing into focus, let's look at the various countries where such killings are allowed and how the law is interpreted regarding this act:

Haitian law states that "in the case of adultery, the murder of a husband of his wife and/or her partner, immediately upon discovering them inflagrante delicto in the conjugal abode, is to be pardoned."

Jordan law is interpreted this way "he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one of them, is exempted from any penalty."

In Morocco, "murder, injury, and beating are excusable if they are committed by a husband on his wife as well as the accomplice at the moment in which he surprises them in the act of adultery."

Syrian, "he who catches his wife or one of his ascendants, descendants or sister committing adultery or illegitimate sexual acts with another and he killed or injured one or both of them benefits from an exemption of penalty."

In recent years a few countries have made a move against the practice of honor killing.

Pakistan now claims that honor killings are to be prosecuted as murders. However, in practice, both the police and prosecution tend to ignore the crime. Even in those cases supposedly prosecuted, oftentimes charges are dropped for extenuating circumstances or otherwise dismissed altogether.

Turkey also now claims it sentences persons found guilty of this crime to life in prison, although no such sentences are currently on record.

According to the UN's Commission on Human Rights, violence against women should - - and will - - be tackled as a human rights issue. However, in truth, the issue is much more complex.

"The issue of consent is irrelevant when it comes to honor killings," says Marsha Freeman, director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW). "It has to do with the woman being defiled. It completely objectifies the woman as being about her sexuality and purity. It makes her not human."

Amnesty International also stresses that countries that don't recognize domestic violence as a crime need to bring their penal codes up to international standards. While some minor progress has been made in recent years, it is clear that there is a long way to go.

It is something for American women to consider the next time we are tempted to whine about being taken for granted or overlooked. Sure we don't have everything we want, but in more ways than not we certainly have everything we need.

References:
Amnesty International
International Women's Rights Action Watch
National Geographic
UN Commission on Human Rights
UNICEF