Honor Killings

Honor killings, a tradition practiced by Muslims in which a male family member kills a woman to save the family honor, are truly practiced world wide by men of all countries and races. In most cases the men committing these crimes receive little or no punishment. In an honor killing, a woman is killed because she has disgraced the family name by having pre-marital sex, committing adultery, flirting, and in some cases for only looking at a male outside of the family in the eyes, or even being suspected of any of these acts. In our so called modern society which we claim to have so many rights and freedoms in, honor killings still occur on a daily basis. Crimes of passion as we ignorantly call them are the equivalent to honor killings. Women are frequently killed by a jealous husband or lover because these men found out or merely believed their female partners were having an affair. In most countries including our own these men do not receive the punishment they so rightly deserve, instead most of them plead temporary insanity and their punishment is not as severe as it should be.

As a woman living in today’s society it saddens me that such horrible and atrocious acts are still being committed against defenseless women. In India some women are killed by their husbands because their dowry was considered too small by his family members. Incredible but true women are killed because they do not have enough money to support their husband. 16 “official” dowry deaths occur each day, while 68 “unofficial” deaths occur each day in India. These women suffer horrible deaths such as burning, poisoning and by means of many other monstrous and despicable methods. http://www.aidindia.org/nodowry/

Honor killings are not the only crimes of passion being committed against women, there are also other types of abuse, such as domestic violence, acid attacks, even sexual abuse many times happening within a relationship. These types of abuse are just as appalling as honor killings. Men who commit these particular crimes go completely unpunished a large percentage of the time, due to the fact that women do not report these types of abuse because of fear of being harmed any further, humiliation or in many cases are forced by their partners to think that it is their own fault.

No woman or child should ever have to suffer at the hands of an abusive husband or father. Committing any of these crimes is a clear violation of a persons human rights and the law. If you, or any woman or child you know is being harmed in any way it is your responsibility to act on their behalf and make sure they receive the adequate help. A woman’s life is very valuable to her children her family, her friends and other women just like her who care and would like to see women lead a successful and healthy lifestyle. For information on how to help abused women contact us and we will try to locate centers, women support groups, and organizations which help women financially or visit http://www.fstb.net/default.html remember it is a liberated woman’s responsibility to help herself and others.


Norely “The Player”

LWC