"Honor” killings of women can be defined as acts of murder in which "a woman is killed for her actual or perceived immoral behavior" (Yasmeen Hassan). The killing is thought to restore honor to the family.
The picture shown above shows how before a woman is stoned in Iran she is half-buried.2/18/2008: Iran: 14- Year Old Stoned to Death by Father
Newspapers report a father stoned his daughter to death. According to the newspaper, a father found out his 14-year old daughter was having or had a relationship with a boy. After hearing this he and a friend brought his daughter, Saeedeh, up to the mountains were the stoning began. He then shot her four times. Both of the men have said to have been arrested.
In a report done by a separate publication, they quoted the father saying, “When we were taking her [the girl] to the mountains, she was scared but still didn’t know what she as expecting. Upon arrival to the scheduled place, I threw Saeedeh on the ground and started the stoning. She was screaming and begging for her life, but I had to save my honor and didn’t have any other choice than killing her…”
Human rights activists have reported that the number of honor killings has drastically increase in recent years in Iran.
Read Further: http://www.iranhr.net/spip.php?article208
Or at: http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd%5B157%5D=x-157-560591
Citations:
"Iran: 14-Year-Old Stoned to Death by Father." Women Living Under Muslim Law 15 Feb 2008
Yasmeen Hassan, "The Fate of Pakistani Women," International Herald Tribune, May 25, 1999.
3/6/2008: Man Sentenced to 16 Years Imprisonment for ‘Honor’ Killing
Hamda Abu Ghanem, 18-years old, was shot and killed in her home in Ramla, Israel by her brother, in an honor killing.
Many of these cases do not end up going to trial because of the code of silence between family members. It is considered very risky for family members, especially daughters or wives to speak up against their brothers or fathers, for fear of punishment or even death. (New York Times)
This case differed in that manner. Twenty relatives decided to speak up. This enabled the court system to send the man, Rashad, to prison for 16 years.
Read Further: http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-560850
Citation:
Kershner, Isabel. "Israel: Man sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for 'honour' killing." Women Living Under Muslim Law 04 Mar 2008.
Picture from: http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/civilization_ca/
However, cultural relativism asks you to step back and see why a culture does the things it does, not necessarily to understand it. So honor killings occur when someone, usually a family member of the killer, has somehow behaved ‘immorally,’ usually by the standards of their religion. In order to restore honor to the family members of the culprit, he/she is killed.
1 comment:
I truly enjoyed reading your blog based on your chose topic and clear, precise prose. I thought it was a very effective tactic to post current events and then block them off with reflection and research to solidify and explain the issues the current events were addressing. While most of the current events were rather shocking, I think it’s extremely important for all of them to be taken into consideration, especially in this particular blog. However, while this is a very sensitive topic and ome might have referred to it in a seemingly disrespectful, you clearly took the time to understand the custom rather than openly judging it. I also thought it was extremely useful to look at cases where wearing the veil was a choice, not a punishment (i.e. women of Java). With such topics like this, I feel we can often times fall into our own belief systems and begin to openly judge what we don’t understand. This blog, however, steers clear of that as I had previously stated. I also liked the comparison between boys growing up in Iraq and girls growing up in Iraq and how rearing plays a part in the culture. It clearly depcits the issue of gender roles and what is expected of each gender on its own. I think it would have been interesting to personally interview someone who wears a veil and/or grew up in a household where they used to have to wear a veil but now chose not to. We get a brief explanation of how a man in Iraqi society feels about veils and their daughters upholding a certain extent of honor, but an interview with a man who comes from a culture where veiling is common might have also been interesting. Do some men find it attractive? Do different colored veils mean something, or is there a specific color guideline a woman has to follow? What are the typical lengths of such veils? When are they allowed to take of their veils, and who are the only people allowed to see a woman’s face openly? Questions like that would have been interesting to look at as well. All in all I feel like you did a really good job addressing a sensitive topic that is open to a lot of judgment and is a topic, that when written about, demands that all facts are true and correct. Great job!
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