'honor' crimes
UK: Parents re-arrested over suspected 'honour' killing
The parents of a Muslim teenager thought to have been the victim of an "honour" killing were arrested today on suspicion of her murder, almost seven years after she went missing.
The remains of Shafilea Ahmed, 17, from Warrington, Cheshire, were discovered by the river Kent near Sedgwick, Cumbria, in February 2004, five months after she disappeared from her home in Great Sankey.
'Honour killing' suspected in murder of British couple in Pakistan
A British couple have been murdered in in a suspected "honour killing" after calling off their daughter's marriage.
A man and his wife from the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, named locally as taxi driver Gul Wazir and wife Bagum, had reportedly visited the country to resolve a dispute over a wedding.
India: Prosecute Rampant ‘Honor’ Killings
(New York) July 18, 2010 -- The Indian government should urgently investigate and prosecute those responsible for the recent spurt in reported "honor" killings, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also strengthen laws that protect against kinship, religion-based, and caste-based violence, and take appropriate action against local leaders who endorse or tolerate such crimes, Human Rights Watch said.
Murders to protect family or community "honor" have increased in recent months, in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, where unofficial village councils, called khap panchayats, issue edicts condemning couples for marrying outside their caste or religion and condemn marriages within a kinship group (gotra), considered incestuous even though there is no biological connection. To enforce these decrees and break up such relationships, family members have threatened couples, filed false cases of abduction, and killed spouses to protect the family's "honor." Some local politicians and officials have been sympathetic to the councils' edicts, implicitly supporting the violence.
"Officials who fail to condemn village council edicts that end in murder are effectively endorsing murder," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Politicians and police need to send these councils a strong message to stop issuing edicts on marriages."
In India, Castes, Honor and Killings Intertwine
KODERMA, India — When Nirupama Pathak left this remote mining region for graduate school in New Delhi, she seemed to be leaving the old for the new. Her parents paid her tuition and did not resist when she wanted to choose her own career. But choosing a husband was another matter.
Her family was Brahmin, the highest Hindu caste, and when Ms. Pathak, 22, announced she was secretly engaged to a young man from a caste lower than hers, her family began pressing her to change her mind. They warned of social ostracism and accused her of defiling their religion.
Canada: Aqsa Parvez’s father and son have both been given life sentences for her murder
For years, Muhammad Parvez had been in absolute control of his family: he set the rules, he made the decisions and he told his eight children, including the adult ones, exactly how to live their lives.
Italy: Moroccan Father on Trial for Daughter's Honour Killing
Pordenone, 14 June (AKI) – The fast-track trial of a Moroccan immigrant accused of stabbing his 18-year-old daughter to death last year in an ‘honour’ killing opened in the northeastern Italian town of Pordenone on Monday.
India: Women Advocate Against Honour Killings & For Free Choice Marriages
New Delhi - Honour killings in north India are making the headlines with sickening regularity. The unexplained death of Nirupama Pathak in her Jharkhand home is just one incident.
Palestine: Landmark conference on murder in the name of family honour
At a landmark conference held recently in Ramallah in the occupied Palestinian territory, delegates were told of documented cases of “honour” crimes where women and girls had been poisoned, strangled, shot and forced to commit suicide by arelatives because their alleged behaviours had tarnished the family “honour”. These behaviours included talking on the phone with a man, being late or the mere rumour or supposition that an illicit behaviour may have happened.
Pakistan: Over 600 women killed in name of honour in 2009
The Urdu expression `chaddar aur chardawari’ is often quoted in Pakistan to suggest that women are safest under their shawl (`chaddar’) and within the four walls (`chardawari’) of their home. This may hold true for many women, but for some, such as 25-year-old Naseeba Bibi, it could not be further from the truth. Naseeba said she had suffered continual abuse from her husband since they got married six years ago in Kasur, about 55km southeast of Lahore, Punjab Province.
“My husband is jobless and a drug addict. He slapped and beat me daily, sometimes with a stick. I still have scars on my back. Recently, he started to tell people I was involved with another man, and would kill me for `honour’. I believed this was his plan, as he wished to marry someone else,” she said.
So she ran away to Lahore with her three children - the youngest is seven months old - and now struggles to make ends meet by selling hand-crafted toys on the pavement.