So-called honour killing is an unspeakable barbaric evil

It hadn't received much notice in Canada but, on July 6, 2008 in a backward country called Georgia, Sandeela Kanwal, 25, was strangled with a bungee cord. The police arrested her father in connection with what the media called an ‘honour killing.’ The victim was reportedly unhappy with her arranged marriage, which took place in Pakistan three months previous, and so, on July 1, she filed for divorce. Four days later, her father murdered her.

Last December, Mississauga teen Aqsa Parvez was killed. Both her father and older brother face murder charges in her strangling death, which occurred after the girl had repeatedly flouted their restrictive ideas of how she should dress.

"This is not Islam, this is barbarism." Stephen Rockwell, host of Saturday's national TV show Call of the Minaret on Vision TV, said of the strangulation murder of 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez that many believe is a cultural honour killing.

According to the United Nations, some 5,000 women every year are executed by their fathers, brothers or other male relatives, supposedly to preserve the family's good name. How can they restore their good name if they are strangling their daughters and sisters? Many of these men in these societies are also guilty of all kinds of marital offences and yet their male relatives don't seem to feel the need to stab, strangle, burn or stone them to death…..unless they're gay, of course.

To these evil men who kill women to preserver the honour of their own name and that of their family, I can only say that their crimes are unspeakable, barbaric and evil.

Paradoxically, the very fact of killing women is an admission that, as man of the house, these men are failures since they can’t make the women in their families submit. This is partly why so many men in the United States kill themselves after killing their partners, at a rate of four women a day. These men too, feel like failures.

Thankfully, considering the millions of people who live in the countries where these so-called "honour killings" are committed, the murders are relatively rare. I say ‘so-called’ because that term "honour killing" diminishes the crime, which is femicide. It all but excuses the killer on cultural grounds. What's more, it attributes motives, and the media should avoid that. We don't report domestic homicides with phrases like; "she-talked-back-at-him-once-too-often, killing" or "she wanted to leave him, killing."

Honour killings distracts from the real issues: patriarchy and control. The fact is; much of the world is deeply misogynistic. In far too many countries, women are mere chattels, the property of men, passed from their fathers to their husbands. But, if you want to make this about Islam and so many do, then consider this, if women are indeed the inferior sex in Islam, then it stands to reason that allowances would be made for their weaknesses. And, if men are their betters, wouldn't their religion hold them to a higher standard? The real ‘honour’ here is really about power, and who has it. Sometimes, when women defy men, they take that power, and some men will stop at nothing to get it back. That also means, obey by staying in the house and don't wear pretty things that will attract attention.

These male misfits use the Quoran to enforce these orders. For example, Quran 33.33 states; ‘Stay quietly in your houses, and make not a dazzling display’. I think Muslims have to remember that in the Old Testament, it also said that those who work on the Sabbath can be stoned. But we as a society don't do that any more.

Honour killing is generally a punitive murder, committed by male members of a family against a female member of their family whom the family and/or wider community believes to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman is usually targeted for: refusing an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce — even from an abusive husband — or committing adultery or fornication. These killings result from the perception that any behavior of a woman that ‘dishonors’ her family is justification for a killing that would otherwise be deemed as murder.

Sharif Kanaana, professor of anthropology at Birzeit University states that honor killing is: ‘a complicated issue that cuts deep into the history of Arab society. What the men of the family, clan, or tribe seek, in a patrilineal society, is reproductive power. Women for the tribe are considered a means for making men. The honor killing is not a means to control sexual power or behavior. What's behind it is the issue of fertility, or reproductive power that will bring more men into their society.’

I’m not in total agreement with that statement. I am more in agreement with the statement of Amnesty International which states: “The regime of honor is unforgiving: women on whom suspicion has fallen are not given an opportunity to defend themselves, and family members have no socially acceptable alternative but to remove the stain on their honor by attacking the woman.”

Most Islamic religious authorities prohibit extra-legal punishments such as honor killings, since they consider the practice to be a cultural issue. As certain pre-Islamic cultures still have regional influence, those who practice honor killing use Islam to justify honor killing, but there is no support for the act in the religion itself. The death penalty cannot always be applied in the Sharia as murders are a type of "qisas" ("retaliation") crime 2-178. This means that the family of the deceased should be offered the choice of capital punishment or "diyya" ("blood money") and no execution can take place without them opting for death. Because a relative is usually responsible for the honor killing, it is unlikely that the family of the deceased will punish one of their own for the crime.

Countries where the law is interpreted to allow men to kill female relatives in a premeditated effort as well as for crimes of passions, in flagrante delicto in the act of committing adultery, include:

• Jordan: Part of article 340 of the Penal Code states that "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. This has twice been put forward for cancellation by the government, but was retained by the Lower House of the Parliament.

Countries that allow men to kill female relatives in flagrante delicto (but without premeditation) include:

• Syria: Article 548 states that "He who catches his wife or one of his ascendants, descendants or sister committing adultery (flagrante delicto) or illegitimate sexual acts with another and he killed or injured one or both of them benefits from an exemption of penalty."

Countries that allow husbands to kill only their wives in flagrante delicto (based upon the Napoleonic code) include:

• Morocco: Article 418 of the Penal Code states "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."

• Haiti: Article 269 of the Penal Code states that "in the case of adultery as provided for in Article 284, the murder by a husband of his wife and/or her partner, immediately upon discovering them in flagrante delicto in the conjugal abode, is to be pardoned."

• In two Latin American countries, similar laws were struck down over the past two decades: according to human rights lawyer Julie Mertus "in Brazil, until 1991 wife killings were considered to be non criminal 'honor killings'; and in just one year, nearly eight hundred husbands killed their wives. Similarly, in Colombia, until 1980, a husband legally could kill his wife for committing adultery."

Countries where honor killing is not legal but is known to occur include:

• Turkey: In Turkey, persons found guilty of this crime are sentenced to life in prison.

• Iraqi and Kurdistan: In Kurdistan, women are killed nearly every day for 'dishonoring' their families. Honor killing was legal until 2002 in Iraq.

• Pakistan: Honor killings are known as Karo Kari (Sindhi:) (Urdu: ). The practice is supposed to be prosecuted under ordinary murder, but in practice police and prosecutors often ignore it. Often a man must simply claim the killing was for his honor and he will go free. Nilofar Bakhtiar, advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, stated that in 2003, as many as 1,261 women were murdered in honor killings.

On December 8, 2004, under international and domestic pressure, Pakistan enacted a law that made honor killings punishable by a prison term of seven years, or by the death penalty in the most extreme cases. Women's rights organizations were, however, wary of this law as it stops short of outlawing the practice of allowing killers to buy their freedom by paying compensation to the victim's relatives. Women's rights groups claimed that in most cases it is the victim's immediate relatives who are the killers, so inherently the new law is just eyewash. It did not alter the provisions whereby the accused could negotiate pardon with the victim's family under the so-called Islamic provisions.

In March 2005 the Pakistani government allied with Islamists to reject a bill which sought to strengthen the law against the practice of "honor killing". However, the bill was brought up again, and in November 2006, it passed. It is doubtful whether or not the law would actually help women.

These honour killings happen in numbers that are way under reported. When Holland started keeping statistics on this, the results where shocking for such a small country.

This kind of behaviour/culture and view towards women and girls as barn yard animals that must be exterminated the moment they do not conform so that family members can walk down the street with your head up high past your neighbors is from 11th century and has no place whatsoever in Canadian society, and there should be special laws concerning these crimes. These criminal acts should be prosecuted extra punitively to send a message about Canadian values.

Anybody who is convicted of strangling a teenage girl should face the full force of Canadian law and not even think about hiding behind Islam.

The murder of that young girl was not an honour killing, it was a dishonour killing. It should bring shame on the entire family that condoned it. They should be shunned by their neighbours if it is established that they condoned the murder of the young girl.

Honour killings have gotten out of control in some countries, like in Germany last year where a Kurdish man from Iraq received a life sentence for killing his 24-year-old wife for leaving him. He was proud of his evil deed. Only three hours after his wife had successfully divorced him in 2006, he ambushed her, stabbed her 12 times and then poured gasoline over her, burning her alive. He told the court she had betrayed him and that his religion and culture forbids that.

What utter garbage. His religion does not condone honour killings. Verse 256 of the second chapter in the Koran says; "Let there be no compulsion in religion." Honor killing is neither in the Quran nor is it specified in any hadith. Further, no fundamentalist or otherwise have any authority to force any one to follow any act of Muslim religion in accordance of teaching in Muslim Scripture. It is however the natural outcome of the Islamic ethos of misogyny.

Nowhere in the Quoran or Hadith (biographies of Muhammed) will you find scripture or text that legitimizes honor killing. In fact, it is forbidden. Married women who commit adultery are to be stoned to death according to Islamic law. But they must be judged by a religious court that requires testimony from four male witnesses to insure a conviction. The sentence would then be carried out by religious authorities; not family members. That being the case, is it fair and just to attribute the practice of honor killing to Islam?

Should this loathsome crime be attributed instead to tribalism or some other aspect of culture independent of Islam. I think not. Islamic misogyny facilitates the practice. Proof for this assertion can be found in the fact that the Hindu and Christian minorities who share in every way except religious faith, the culture of the Muslim nations in which they reside, do not engage in honor killings.

Honor killing is currently virtually unknown in Muslim sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh and Indonesia. It is most commonly practiced by Muslim Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Afghans and Pakistanis and their immigrant populations abroad. It now occurs in every Western country burdened with a Muslim immigrant subculture.

Women in the above mentioned countries are treated no better than pets are in our country. Like pets, they are expected to obey their masters. Who, you may ask, are their masters? It is their fathers, husbands, uncles and brothers of course. Their orders are to be obeyed.

According to these misfits, a woman who transgresses these orders becomes the source of shame to her family. She will not be marriageable; she and her family will become the object of gossip of everyone. The entire family will lose prestige. No one would give a daughter to the brothers of that girl in marriage and no one would marry her sisters. The family and even the extended family are maligned and become outcasts. This can only stop if the family cleanses that stain with blood. The woman thus defiled must be sacrificed even if she is a victim of rape.

But these unfortunate women don’t have to be raped to become an exposed shame to their families. If they disobey their fathers who have consented that they marry certain persons, they dishonor their fathers. If they escape from their homes for any reason including abuse, they have brought shame to their family and they can be hunted by their own brothers or even their mothers and killed. If they reject a suitor, his pride can be injured and he may feel the urge to throw acid at the woman’s face to avenge and restore his honor. If women make a dazzling display of themselves, the honor of all these so-called honorable male relatives is injured and all of them have a right to bury their shame (the women) to restore their honor.

In these socially backward countries, the woman is supposed to remember that she has brought shame and disgrace to her father and everyone else in her family and to cover this shame, she must die. Only the grave will cover all the shame that the unfortunate woman has brought to this world. But as long as she is alive, it is the duty of the men in the family to put an end to her life.

Is there anything more stupid than this concept of how women should be treated?

Women in Islam are regarded as sources of shame. Muhammad said they are awrah which can be translated as 'object of shame'. What is awrah? The Encyclopedia of Islam defines 'awrah as pudendum, that is the external genitals, especially of the female. Pudendum derives from the Latin pudor which means sense of shame and modesty. So awrah signifies an object of shame that needs to be covered. The woman is 'awrah. When she goes outside (the house), the devil welcomes her. If a woman loses her innocence by e.g. through rape, she becomes the object of shame for her family and the only way to remove that shame and restore the honor is to remove that defiled woman.

One could say that honor killing is cultural, but it is a culture that is deeply rooted in Islamic mindset and derives from it. It is practiced in all Islamic countries. The more religious is a country, the more is widespread are honor killings.

Many Muslim men in my opinion, have a very low self esteem of themselves but they compensate the smallness of their self by inflating their ego. Women related to them, feel as if the men own them. Whatever the women do, affects their male relatives gigantic egos. Many of these men are possessive and feel dishonored if women make a "dazzling display" of themselves. And of course if a woman is raped, (deflowered) this is a unforgiving affront to their humongous pride. The damage is irreparable and to some of them, the only way to restore their pride is to get rid of the offending women by murdering them.

Honor killing is theoretically against the law in all Islamic countries, but generally the sentences are light. Often they are a year of jail or only a few months. The judges are very "understanding" and sympathize with the killers who are also grieving for the loss of their loved one. Most likely the Judges would do the same in similar situations. Everyone agrees that this is a very unfortunate situation that has no other solution but taking the life of the poor girl. Often the brothers and the parents hug the lifeless cadaver of their victim and cry bitterly after stabbing her to death or strangulating her. What hypocrites they are. They didn't listen to her pleading and begging to spare her life, but they cry profusely for her after they kill her. Of course, if you look closely in their eyes, you will only see crocodile tears.

Meanwhile, 57-year-old Muhammad Parvez and his 26-year-old son Waqas are ensured a fair trial in Pakistan. But if it is shown that this was a murder to defend Islam or the family's name, they should be locked up for the full twenty-five years or more if necessary. If found guilty, they should be made an example of. People who come into our country must realize that we don’t condone murder and we don’t except honour as a justifiable motive.

Nazir Ahmed appeared calm and unrepentant as he recounted how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to salvage his family’s “honor” — a crime that even shocked Pakistanians. The 40-year old laborer, speaking to The Associated Press in police detention as he was being shifted to prison, confessed to just one regret — that he didn’t murder the stepsister’s alleged lover too.

Ahmed’s killing spree — witnessed by his wife Rehmat Bibi as she cradled their 3 month-old baby son — happened one night at their home in the cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern Punjab province. It was the latest of more than 260 such honor killings documented by the rights commission, mostly from media reports, during the first 11 months of 2005.

Bibi recounted how she was woken by a shriek as Ahmed put his hand to the mouth of his stepdaughter Muqadas and cut her throat with a machete. Bibi looked helplessly on from the corner of the room as he then killed the three girls — Bano, 8, Sumaira, 7, and Humaira, 4 — pausing between the slayings to brandish the bloodstained knife at his wife, warning her not to intervene or raise alarm. She begged her husband to save her daughters but he told her that if she maid a sound, he would kill her also. He then slit the girl’s throats and all night, their bodies lay in front of their shivering mother.

The next morning, Ahmed was arrested. Speaking to AP in the back of police pickup truck as he was shifted to a prison in the city of Multan, Ahmed showed no contrition. Appearing disheveled but composed, he said he killed Muqadas because she had committed adultery, and his daughters because he didn’t want them to do the same when they grew up. He said he bought a butcher’s knife and a machete after midday prayers and hid them in the house where he carried out the killings.

This creep said, “I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated,” he said, his hands cuffed, his face unshaven. “We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor.”

Despite Ahmed’s contention that Muqadas had committed adultery — a claim made by her husband — the rights commission reported that according to local people, Muqadas had fled her husband because he had abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory.

Hundreds of girls and women are murdered by male relatives each year in this conservative Islamic nation, and rights groups say that such “honor killings” will only stop when authorities get serious about punishing perpetrators. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in more than half of such cases that make it to court, most end with cash settlements paid by relatives to the victims’ families, although under a law passed last year, the minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum death by hanging.

Horrific details were revealed in 2007 of the last hours of a young Kurdish woman murdered in London, England by her family for falling in love with the wrong man. Banaz Mahmod, 20, was brutally raped and stamped on during a two-hour ordeal before being garotted to death with a thick wire.

Hama, 30, of West Norwood, pleaded guilty to the murder. Mahmod Mahmod, 52 (her father) of Wimbledon, south London, and Ari Mahmod, 51, (her uncle) of Mitcham, were found guilty of murder. That crime in England is punishable by life in prison.

Hama is recorded as saying about Ari (the girl’s uncle) "I swear to God it took him more than two hours to kill her. Her soul and her life would not leave." Banaz was garotted for five minutes, but it took another half an hour for her to die, because the wire was thick. Hama also admitted; "I was kicking and stamping on her neck to get the soul out. I saw her stark naked, without wearing pants or underwear." Banaz's body was packed into a suitcase and buried in a garden in Birmingham, where it was found three months later.

It was learned at the trial of the two brothers that Banaz was killed because she had walked out of an unhappy arranged marriage - which she was forced into at just 17 - and fallen in love with Iranian Kurd Rahmat Suleimani, 28. The pair had been secretly seeing each other, but her family were furious when they found out because Mr Suleimani was not "immediate family" or a strict Muslim.

I am not a forgiving man. I personally would prefer that these people who commit honour killings be put in solitary confinement with no television, radio or access to newspapers or be permitted to have visitors for the rest of their lives. They do not have the right to claim that they are part of society therefore society should no longer be available to them in any shape or form. They should however, have the right to a have a copy of the Quoran in their cell. Maybe by reading it, they can learn why honour killing is not only not permitted by the Quoran, but also frowned on by society itself which includes decent Muslims and Arabs who find honour killings abhorrent.