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An honour killing is sometimes carried out when victims are perceived to have caused irreversible dishonour to the family name by engaging in Western behaviours. It could be that the victim has a boyfriend or has refused an arranged marriage.
Honour killing is the ultimate and most extreme expression of honour-based violence.
An honour killing is sometimes carried out when victims are perceived to have caused irreversible dishonour to the family name by engaging in Western behaviours. It could be that the victim has a boyfriend or has refused an arranged marriage.
In these cases, the family members perceive that their ‘honour’ or ‘izzat’ has already been lost. The victim now becomes a liability to the family. The victim’s life is taken in an attempt to restore the family’s lost ‘honour’. Women can become targets of honour killings even if they have lost their so-called ‘honour’ through rape.
Victims of honour killing are overwhelmingly female, but men can also become targets - they may, for instance, cause ‘dishonour’ to their family by refusing to enter into marriage or for being homosexual.
An honour killing is usually premeditated, carefully planned and executed with the help of multiple family members.
BARBARIC
Perhaps the most striking – and revealing – feature of honour killings is their sheer brutality. Victims may be subjected to degrading abuse before they are killed - including torture, mockery and rape.
Honour killings in the UK
The very abhorrence of honour killing tends to generate a climate of shock and denial where such killings occur in Western societies. For years, police, teachers, even politicians just couldn’t get their heads around the fact that these crimes were real.
Although around a dozen honour killings are now estimated to take place in the UK every year, the true total could be much higher.
Unlike in cases of straightforward domestic violence, families and communities in honour cases close ranks. The culture of secrecy and acceptance that surrounds honour-based crime in some south Asian communities means that many cases are never even reported.
Go to Google and type in the name ‘Banaz Mahmod’.
Banaz was killed following a degrading and prolonged physical assault by her father and uncle. She was stamped on and strangled. And she died - aged 20. Her case was reported to the police by her devastated boyfriend. If he didn’t report it, you wouldn’t be reading about it now.
Her story is deeply upsetting. We hope you will decide to read about this beautiful young woman anyway. And then get angry. Get very angry.
Raise your voice to our politicians. Tell them:
We won’t tolerate this crime in our country any longer.