Where is the Honour in 'Honour Killings'?

Burn Victim of Domestic Violence, Afghanistan

The image above may disturb you. Good. I hope it not only disturbs you, I hope it rattles you to the very core. The women depicted here refused a marriage proposal from a perspective fiance. He set the eighteen year old girl ablaze, claiming she had dishonoured him. And now, she will writhe in pain for the rest of her life as she is reminded how little she is worth in the eyes of certain men in her culture.

Jassi Sidhu - Murdered while visiting in Punjab in 2000 by her Mother
because she secretly married a man from a poor family.

An honour killing is any act committed by a family member, male or female that can be thought of as bringing dishonour upon the family. Though the media often reports honour killings as acts committed by members of the Muslim or Middle Eastern community, several cultures have participated in honour killings. Various South East Asian communities have also taken to murdering family members in an effort to restore honour to the family name. Young girls flirting with boys, wives accused of adultery after being raped by a neighbour, or sons marrying a woman in secret because her family bloodline is considered a lesser class are all justifications, in some fundamentalist cultures, for murdering the offending family member. Entire villages have been reported to arm themselves with stones only to carry out justice against a wrongly accused individual in a most egregious manor as depicted in the disturbing 2008 film, the Stoning of Soraya M.

Anthropologists, theologians, sociologists and psychologists have been closely studying the complex web of circumstances that surround such acts, and all struggle to gain a deeper understanding of such monstrous justifications.

Mohammad Shafia, Montreal 2011

Honour Killings have certainly not been a prominent part of the North American social conscious until now. With survivors of vicious attacks actively, though discreetly, seeking out venues to share their stories, their voices are often drowned about by reports on the failing economy, a new healthcare bill or foreign policy debate. Several recent cases have appeared in Canada, with as many as 13 cases since 2002. In a most recent case, Mohammad Shafia, was accused of murdering his three teenage daughters, spewing that his 13, 17 and 19 year old daughters were whores because they "consorted with boys and wore make-up". Police officers involved in the case have been grappling with details of the monstrous case. Callous statements made by the accused, his wife and son, have shaken all those watching breathlessly, waiting for the outcome. 

It's near impossible for the Western world to imagine committing such a crime against our children. Murdering your thirteen year old daughter because she was flirting with boys (or girls) and wore make-up to school. It's one of the most poignant stages of adolescence. To be robbed of something so natural, and then to pay with your life. Canada's sensitivity to cultural diversity and differences has the Canadian justice system reeling. Is this a cultural social norm? Absolutely not. This is a fairly new social phenomena in the North American social fabric and there are few experts in the field. However, countries like Canada and the United States are not only condemning all honour killing acts, but are vehemently campaigning against all acts of domestic violence in the name of restoring family honour. There is no place for such acts of violent intolerance and hatred, and there is no scrap of honour in honour killings.