“Honor Killing”: Whether Honorable or Dishonorable

Abstract

Instances of honour-related crimes have seen to be increasing in the Northern part of India, as our societies are generally intolerant and rigid when it comes to the practices associated with marriages, especially when women make choices of one’s partner2 . Among 60 cases heard by the Vacation Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2006, approximately 27 cases involve young couples who had sought protection or have applied for anticipatory bail, on fear of apprehension by the police (ibid). Most of these couples got married against the “bhaichara” (brotherhood) principle of the caste panchayats and hence considered as to bring dishonor to the society. The past two decades have witnessed thousands of cases where young couples were victimized for reasons of bypassing the boundaries set by their communities, or families. In 2009, the then Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, while addressing the Rajya Sabha and replying to a call for attention on increasing honour-related offences have called such crimes as a blot on the country3 . Honour related crimes have been reported from across the world, with a report showing increased incidences in South Asian countries. In patriarchal societies, predominantly in the Middle East and parts of South Asia, the literature suggests that sexual imprudence, especially by women, is assumed to bring disgrace to their families, who are forced to disburse terrible prices. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights also illustrates instances of honour killings in the rest of the world, with pieces of evidence from Bangladesh, Great Britain, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda4 . There are also pieces of evidence of honour-related crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. A large extent of literature on honour-related crimes understand it as an Islamic concept where families impose control over their women, however, Brown writes that there is nothing Islamic on honour-related crimes5 . Dogan (2005) opines that even amongst the popular rhetoric, the problem is not found to be specific for Muslims and the most serious and concentrated occurrences of such offenses do not include Muslims at all. Labeling it as an Islamic crime tends to dilute the seriousness of the crime and portray it as a crime committed by Islamic men against their women (Brown 2016). There is also no uniformity in the methods adopted while imposing honour-related crimes. It could range from murder to attempted murder to rape to other physical and mental injuries. However, only a small percentage of women get subjected to such extreme forms of punishment, although most communities are ruled by notions of honour and shame. Such links between the behavior and expressions of women and honour of the community are a result of a faulty and distorted interpretation of various socio-cultural factors, including religion (ibid)…..