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Honour Killers:NOT KNIGHTS IN SHINING ARMOUR, by V.S. Dharmakumar,16 June 2008 Print E-mail

Events & Issues 

New Delhi, 16 June 2008

Honour Killers

NOT KNIGHTS IN SHINING ARMOUR

By V.S. Dharmakumar

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. --- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

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