qtung2001

Thousands of Women Killed for Family "Honor"
Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News
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Note: these photos are graphically shocking.
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Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families
each year in the name of family "honor." It's difficult to get precise
numbers on the phenomenon of honor killing; the murders frequently go
unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, and the concept of family
honor justifies the act in the eyes of some societies.

Most honor killings occur in countries where the concept of women as a
vessel of the family reputation predominates, said Marsha Freemen,
director of International Women's Rights Action Watch at the Hubert
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Reports submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
show that honor killings have occurred in Bangladesh, Great Britain,
Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan,
Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda. In countries not submitting
reports to the UN, the practice was condoned under the rule of the
fundamentalist Taliban government in Afghanistan, and has been
reported in Iraq and Iran.

Woman recovering in a Pakistani hospital from an attack where acid was
thrown in her face. This type of violence coupled with other
violations of women's rights worldwide has caused the UN, Amnesty
International and UNICEF to become actively involved.

National Geographic Channel

But while honor killings have elicited considerable attention and
outrage, human rights activists argue that they should be regarded as
part of a much larger problem of violence against women.

"In countries where Islam is practiced, they're called honor killings,
but dowry deaths and so-called crimes of passion have a similar
dynamic in that the women are killed by male family members and the
crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable," said Widney
Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.

"Females in the family—mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters, and
cousins—frequently support the attacks. It's a community mentality,"
said Zaynab Nawaz, a program assistant for women's human rights at
Amnesty International.
Women as Property

There is nothing in the Koran, the book of basic Islamic teachings,
that permits or sanctions honor killings. However, the view of women
as property with no rights of their own is deeply rooted in Islamic
culture, Tahira Shahid Khan, a professor specializing in women's

"Women are considered the property of the males in their family
irrespective of their class, ethnic, or religious group. The owner of
the property has the right to decide its fate. The concept of
ownership has turned women into a commodity which can be exchanged,
bought and sold."

Honor killings are perpetrated for a wide range of offenses. Marital
infidelity, pre-marital ***, flirting, or even failing to serve a meal
on time can all be perceived as impugning the family honor.
Amnesty International has reported on one case in which a husband
murdered his wife based on a dream that she had betrayed him. In
Turkey, a young woman's throat was slit in the town square because a
love ballad had been dedicated to her over the radio.

In a society where most marriages are arranged by fathers and money is
often exchanged, a woman's desire to choose her own husband—or to seek
a divorce—can be viewed as a major act of defiance that damages the
honor of the man who negotiated the deal.

Even victims of **** are vulnerable. In a widely reported case in
March of 1999, a 16-year-old mentally retarded girl who was ****d in
the Northwest Frontier province of Pakistan was turned over to her
tribe's judicial council. Even though the crime was reported to the
police and the perpetrator was arrested, the Pathan tribesmen decided
that she had brought shame to her tribe and she was killed in front of
a tribal gathering.

The ****age brothers of victims are frequently directed to commit the
murder because, as minors, they would be subject to considerably
lighter sentencing if there is legal action. Typically, they would
serve only three months to a year.
In the Name of Family Honor

Officials often claim that nothing can be done to halt the practice
because the concept of women's rights is not culturally relevant to
deeply patriarchal societies.

"Politicians frequently argue that these things are occurring among
uneducated, illiterate people whose attitudes can't be changed," said
Brown. "We see it more as a matter of political will."

"In Jordan, if a woman is afraid that her family wants to kill her,
she can check herself into the local prison, but she can't check
herself out, and the only person who can get her out is a male
relative, who is frequently the person who poses the threat," said
Brown.

The case of one of the victims Davie examined is heartbreaking but
also hopeful. Zahida Perveen, a 29-year-old mother of three, was
brutally disfigured and underwent extensive facial reconstruction in
the United States. She is one of the only survivors in Pakistan to
successfully prosecute the attacker—her husband.

"That this is their idea of how to protect women," Brown said, "is
mind boggling."

Ending Violence Against Women
Violence against women is being tackled at the international level as
a human rights issue. In 1994 the UN's Commission on Human Rights
appointed a special rapporteur on violence against women, and both
UNICEF and the UN Development Fund for Women have programs in place to
address the issue.

Amnesty International is preparing to launch a worldwide campaign to
halt violence against women in 2003.

In a National Geographic do***entary (which airs beginning Wednesday,
February 13), Michael Davie investigated honor killings in Pakistan,
where it is estimated that every day at least three women—including
victims of ****—are victims of the practice.

The case of one of the victims Davie examined is heartbreaking but
also hopeful. Zahida Perveen, a 29-year-old mother of three, was
brutally disfigured and underwent extensive facial reconstruction in
the United States. She is one of the only survivors in Pakistan to
successfully prosecute the attacker—her husband.

"The reason honor killings have emerged as a human rights issue is
that it's the only way ultimately that it can be addressed," said
Freeman. "Naming the problem and bringing international attention to
it highlights the refusal of some of these governments to shine any
kind of light on their failure to protect their own citizens.
======

"Honor Killings" In Pakistan Reach 631 This Year, Group Says

U.N. Wire.
Monday, September 15, 2003

A human rights organization in Pakistan said today that at least 631
women and girls in the country have died in "honor killings" by male
relatives since the beginning of the year, Associated Press reports.

Madadgar, a rights group run by the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal
Aid and UNICEF, said the findings were based on newspaper reports and
were not believed to include all of such killings.

About half the deaths had taken place in the southern province of
Sindh. The group said it believed many more cases had gone unreported
in the conservative Baluchistan and Northwest Frontier province areas.

"The actual number of women who fell victim to gruesome honor killings
is definitely much higher than the reported cases but it is hard to
record each case, especially when you don't have enough resources,"
said Zia Awan of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid.

The Madadgar report found that husbands were responsible for 247 of
the killings, brothers 112, fathers 54, sons 25 and uncles two,
according to AP. Honor killings, which violate Pakistani law, are
carried out against women as punishment for extramarital ***ual
relations or refusal to abide by parents' choice of husbands. The
male relatives who commit the murders are rarely prosecuted in
traditional communities (Zarar Khan, AP, Sept. 15).

norma

Then why show them?

amaso

news like this are obviously made by jews

pund_kamath

...President takes note of honour killing -DAWN - Top Stories; 23 November, 2003

Good News .The Newspaper DAWN reported this .. Read this...

ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has noted with concern a news
item appearing in a section of the press in which it has been reported that a
woman, Ms Afshin, allegedly a victim of honour killing, had died in mysterious
cir***stances in Multan.

The president has directed the authorities concerned to carry out a thorough
investigation into the incident and determine whether her death was a result of
honour killing.

The president reiterated the government's firm commitment to upholding human
rights of all citizens.

He said violation of human rights was absolutely against the charter of our
great religion Islam, which called for mutual respect and tolerance.

President Musharraf said if the deceased was made a victim of honour killing,
the culprit should be held accountable in accordance with the law.

He said crimes against women were against all norms of civilized society and
therefore intolerable.

The President recalled that the government had been striving for sensitizing the
people on according due status and dignity to women in society and encouraged
enlightened debate on the issue on the electronic media.-APP

hunter1

SO the moral of the story is, make sure it gets into the
international media and THEN something will be done about
it, like the gang **** of that poor girl in that village
that was ignored until it hit international media. Ah well,
at least it's getting better... Very slowly, but very
surely, gotta give them 100 points for progress (as opposed
to regressing such as the Taliban did to Afghanistan and the
Ayatollah did to Iran). Like I keep saying, Islam isn't the
problem, it's the ****ing fundamentalist psychotic extremist
Muslims (or their counterparts in any other religion, Islam
just has a **** of a lot more of them) that need a bullet in
the head to improve the world.